


Divergent Meeting

by RenkonNairu



Series: Osmosian Culture Clash [2]
Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Headcanon, Omniverse does not exist/never happened, Osmosians mate for life, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 04:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6222976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/pseuds/RenkonNairu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>-Ben 10 OS, alternate telling of ep. "Kevin 11"-</p><p>Kevin was raised by his father on Osmos V. In an effort to help the boy understand and connect with his human half, Devin takes Kevin to visit Earth and they meet up with Devin's former partner Max Tennyson. Max has his grandchildren with him, and -as always whenever Kevin and Ben are together with the Omnitrix between them- chaos ensues. </p><p>(Osmosians are aliens, not mutant Earthlings. Devin does exist and is not a false memory construct. Osmos V is a place. Omniverse ret-cons can suck it!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kevin Half-Terran

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my second attempt to incorporate some of my head canons into one cohesive story. My last attempt (Lost Heir Con) did not go so well. Hopefully, this one will be much better. The head canons you can expect to see in this fic are…
> 
> * Following under the assumption that Osmosians are ALIENS and not mutants (Omniverse ret-cons can blow me), they have a very rigid culture that puts a high emphasis on self-control and respecting personal space. Marriages are arranged by each child's gender-parent (boy's marriages are arranged by their father, girls' marriages are arranged by their mother), and mating pairs mate for life. There is no dating, cheating, adultery, or pluralized marriage among Osmosians. Devin Levin left Osmos V because he couldn't continue living in so struct and stifling an environment. So, he left, joined the Plumbers, and was assigned to Earth. He found life on Earth much more comfortable (although, because of his up-bringing, he was WAY conservative for 80s-90s era America).
> 
> * Osmosians mate for life. (Whether you choose to believe they're aliens or mutants.) Because of their power of absorption, when two Osmosians engage in coitus, they absorb a small fraction of their partner's energy thus binding the two together with an invisible and intangible tether formed by their shared energies. This bond can still form even if the Osmosian's mate is of another species (such as Earthling), but the bond might be weaker or one-sided. A bond with a being that poses a high energy or is made of energy (such as an Anodite) will produce a much stronger and more potent bond, one that might withstand several lifetimes without breaking (soul mates).
> 
>  
> 
> Last time I tried to shove four of my head canons into the fic. This time I'm starting small with just two. Hopefully this will be more manageable and the story will seem more cohesive and flow better. I hope you enjoy.

"For Ash's sake!" Exclaimed Devin's partner as he spun his sholto, charging the spear with kinetic energy before letting lose a blast that cought the alien right in the chest. (Or rather, the part of its anatomy that looked like it could be the chest.) "Open the airlock, Levin! Open the airlock!"

Devin didn't need to be told. He pounded a gloved fist down on the airlock control panel and blew the creature out of the ship. He pounded his fist down on the switch again and slammed the access door shut before to much of the ship's internal atmosphere could be sucked out along with their recently departed stowaway. 

The two men sank to their knees in relief.

"I swear… these patrols!" Ashrah pulled off his standard issue Plumber's helmet to reveal a red-skinned face, common among the desert people of Kanahn. He wiped sweat from his brow before running the hand through a main of long unbound hair. All bonded males wore their hair long, as a visible mark that they were already bound to another person. But the Kanahnite people also plucked the hairs from their temples to display their horns when they reached maturity and Ashrah sported four, two in each side. "If its not rescuing prospectors on Osmos I, or trying to prevent a civil war on Osmos IV, then its ghoseh space vermin invading our ship!"

Devin likewise pulled off his own helmet. Males on Earth -as a general rule- kept their hair short and while Devin was living there, he adhered to that native custom. But since returning to Osmos V with his son, he let his hair grow out and now sported a perky -if a little sweat soaked- ponytail. He smiled at his partner. "Oh, this? This wasn't all that bad. There was this one time, when I was stationed on Earth-"

"Chyseh tkimah!" Ashrah cursed. "Is there ever a moment when you don't mention your damn time on Earth!" 

With a groan and another curse, Ashra climbed to his feet and crossed the space to the co-pilot's seat. Sitting down, he punched in a few numbers on the com system to open a channel. "This is Plumber's ship 00011-xi, Magisters Aggregor Ashrah and Devin Levin. We've completed our patrol of the system and are heading back. Full report to follow."

He switched off the com and looked back at Devin, still sitting on the floor. "That is, if my pilot would be kind enough to get off his ass and take us in."

Shaking his head at his partner, Devin pushed himself to his feet and over to the pilot's seat. He flopped down, disengaged the auto-pilot and took control of the stick back from the computer. "Ya know, I bet I could shave a few hours off our flight time if we slingshot around the sun and use its gravity to propel us."

"Oh, no!" Aggregor shook his head. "No more of your crazy stunts, Levin!" 

"But this ship's engines are so weak on their own." Whined the other man, sounding more like an indignant child rather than a mature Osmosian adult and Magister ranked Plumber. 

"No more crazy stunts!" Aggregor repeated. "No skipping on a planet's atmosphere, no taking short cuts through asteroid fields, and no slingshotting around the sun! You might be anxious to reunited with your mate in the next life, but my mate is still very much alive and I'd appreciate it if you return me to her in an equal state of living!"

That deflated Devin's lighthearted and happy mood. The adrenaline from their scuffle with the stowaway alien draining out of him. Devin didn't need the reminder that his bond-mate was gone, their bond cut along with Leah's mortal thread. He felt the absence every day. Like there was a hollow part of his chest that just couldn't be filled. Or a strange silence in the back of his mind where once a warm and rhythmic humming had been. Devin didn't need the reminder of his mate's death to feel her absence. The reminders just made it hurt more. 

"I can't reunite with her in the next life." Devin said softly. "Not so long as I have our son to raise."

That reminder made Aggregor sober up. He could not even begin to imagine what it must be like for the other male. When a pair was bonded, they shared energy, connecting spiritually as well as physically. So that even when the couple was apart, they still carried a piece of each other within them. An invisible tether tying the two together. Binding them. Bonding them. Aggregor couldn't imagine having that bond suddenly and irrevocably severed. If he ever lost Soha, he just might go mad.

But Devin didn't go mad when he lost Leah. Devin couldn't afford to. Because before Leah passed, she gave him a child -the Earthling half-breed, Kevin. For Kevin's sake, Devin had to stay sane and stay among the living. At least, until the boy reached the age of maturity and no longer needed his parent to care for him. 

"Sorry." Aggregor muttered at the reminder of his partner's pain. "Really, Levin- -Devin, I can't even imagine what its like for you. I didn't mean to make light of your pain."

Devin offered a forlorn smile, accepting the apology. "Its not so much a 'pain' anymore as a strange and incomplete kind of living. Like somethings always missing. Like, when I leave the Hearth I'll feel like I've forgotten something. Or I'll be sitting at home and feel like something's been misplaced."

Like something was lost but could never be found again.

"How do you live like that without going crazy?" Asked Aggregor. 

At that, Devin looked up at him. Flashing his teeth in a grin that could only be called maniacal. "Maybe I've always been crazy?"

…

Kevin always hated it when his father went on patrol. 

Devin and his partner, Magister Ashrah, presided over the Osmos System and so had a much shorter patrol rout than other Plumbers teams who were responsible for whole Sectors or even Quadrants sometimes -or so Kevin had been told. Yeah, his father had to spend long spans of time away from home, but it wasn't as long as it could be. 

That didn't seem to matter much to Kevin when it was lights out in the unbonded males' dormitory. 

Since Kevin didn't have a mother to care for him during his father's absences, he was placed in the barracks set aside for the boys of the Hearth that were to old to remain with their mothers, but still to young to be pair-bound to a mate. He was the youngest male in the dormitory. Osmosians did not measure their ages in years as Kevin was told his mother's people did. Osmosians lived for hundreds of their planet's rotations about its sun and found the counting of them to be mundane and pointless. Instead they measured age by stages of life. Kevin was still a child and the unbonded males' dormitory was meant for adolescents and young men who's matches had not yet been arranged. 

He was smaller than the others, that made him slower and weaker. He had trouble keeping up or holding his own in their games. Nobody wanted him on their team during games. Everyone targeted him as the weakest player of whatever team he was on. 

Outside, on the slopes of Sinoth, when the other boy's would battle with snowballs, Kevin would find a high drift to hide behind and attack from the cover it provided. Or else was delegated to the task of making snowballs from the marginal safety of a makeshift fort and suppling the rest of his team with ammunition. Kevin liked that job. Deal out weapons from the safety of a wall of snow while larger boys took hits that were aimed at him was nice. 

At least, it was always nice for a while. 

The games always ended one of two ways. Either the older boys would get board and walk away, at which point all the other boys would slowly trickle away and return to the Hearth as well. Usually forgetting to make sure that Kevin was with them in the process. He was small, and easy to miss, and easy to forget. Besides, he shouldn't be out with them anyway. He should be back at the Hearth, clinging to his mother's skirts. 

The other way the games ended was when a group of unbonded females would pass by on an outing from the Hearth. There would be a change in the air as the older boys sensed the approaching aura of the older girls. Mature but unbonded females had a different energy about them, a distinctive 'aura' that an unbonded male could sense and would react to. -Or so it was explained to Kevin. He was far to young to sense that a mature unbonded female was different than any other female, young, old, bonded, or unbonded. 

But the older boys could sense it and they did react to it. 

The older adolescent boys, and the still unbonded men would pause whatever it was they were doing and turn their heads in whatever direction the female energy came from. The adolescents would drop their snowballs and trudge through the snow, or clime up the trees to get a look at the passing females. Kevin followed them once to see what the big deal was. But he wasn't to impressed. 

With the same dark hair and dark eyes that all Osmosians had. Wearing coats over their colorful dresses. There was nothing remarkable about them at all. They were just girls and they looked like girls. And Kevin said as much.

His father's brother, Yevin was one of the older men who's match had not yet been arranged, and he gave Kevin a patronizing pat on the head. A contact the boy actually appreciated to spite its condescension. Nobody in Sinoth was as free with physical displays of affection as he was told his mother's people were -not even his father- and sometimes all Kevin really wanted was just to be hugged.

"You're still young." Said Yevin. "Just wait. When you can taste their energy and it heats your blood, then you'll understand why we drop everything and rush off. Even for just a trace of the energy radiating off them."

"But… If we take their energy, won't they die?" Kevin asked. That was what happened when you absorbed another living thing's energy -it got weak, it died.

At that question the older man just grinned. "Who says you're the only one absorbing energy?" He laughed at the way Kevin blinked at him. "Didn't you see the way they look back at us as they pass? They want our energy as much as we want theirs. That's why arranging pair-bonds is done so carefully. Once you share your energy, you can't take it back. You're bound to that person forever."

At that reminder, Kevin lowered his eyes to the snow -thinking of his father. "And if your bond-mate dies you're always sad."

"Ahm. Yes. That too." Yevin cleared his throat and shuffled his feet uncomfortably at the reminded that Kevin did not have a mother. Devin's bond-mate died on a far-away alien planet without ever stepping foot on Osmos V. It was why Kevin was placed in the care of the unbonded male's dormitory. 

…

The Plumber's ship touched down in the Porttown landing docks. 

As a general rule, Osmosians did not have a great need for space travel and so had very few places one could launch or land a space fairing vessel. But many outworlders found Osmos V of great interest and begged the Rans'Lahd -the planet's ruling body- to open up trade with the rest of the universe. Thus, Porttown was founded. 

A settlement set apart from the territories of the Eleven Bloodlines and mostly populated by outworlders and those who chose to work with the outworlders. It was also where the Plumbers set up their headquarters for the Osmos System. 

Devin and Aggregor checked in at their headquarters to file reports on their patrol. Typing up a summary of their course, listing the coordinates they visited, and giving narratives of any note-worth occurrences. The reports were handed into an old and white-haired woman who lived in Porttown and did clerical work for the Plumbers. She was the only other Osmosian in the system besides Devin and Aggregor who had a Plumbers Badge. 

Their reports handed in, both men changed out of their armor. Ready to head to their respective homes. 

"Why don't you come over for a meal some time?" Aggregor suggested on their way to the hanger to collect their vehicles. "Bring your son. He can play with Aram. It'll be good for him, since he doesn't have any sibling to keep him company. And Aram will certainly appreciate having a male his own age at the Hearth."

"I donno… Kevin's never left Sinoth before." Devin said slowly. "And what about all your daughters? It would be just plain irresponsible of me to let him mingle with unrelated females."

Aggregor waved a dismissive hand. "You worry to much, Levin. They're all to young for that to be an issue and the two that are at an age where it might be an issue moved into the unbonded females dormitory last season. Stop making excuses and get your ass over to Kanahn next quarter moon." 

"Anyone ever tell you, you can be really pushy, Ashrah?" Devin shook his head as he climbed into his electric green air speeder. 

Aggregor snorted as he climbed into his own land speeder. "If you think I'm pushy, you need to see Soha when she really digs her heels in."

Devin couldn't help the smile that crept onto his lips at that. "Leah was also a powerfully stubborn woman."

"Its an epidemic!" Aggregor threw his hands up in mock despair. Then he turned over the engine of his speeder and shifted the gear. Hanging his head out the side window he called to Devin. "My Hearth. Quarter moon. If you don't show up, I will march into Sinoth and drag your snow-white ass out myself!"

"I'll think about it." Devin assured his partner. But he would not promise to go until he was sure it wouldn't be bad for Kevin. Devin was basically just living for his son at this point. Until the day Kevin was old enough to release him from his responsibility so that Devin could preform ku-sehk and join his mate in their next life. 

Shaking his head, Aggregor muttered something about 'mountain hermits' and pulled out of the hanger. Devin likewise pulled out, kicked in his speeders flight mode and sped off to Sinoth and home.

Sinoth was far to the north. The territory itself spanned most of the length of the coast of the northern most contentment, a few icy islands, and enough inland land to service their agricultural needs. But the part of Sinoth that Devin called his Hearth was the capitol of Sinoth. 

Twin mountain peaks divided by a river cutting sharp and deep inland. On Earth the unique land formation was called a fjord, but the Osmosian language had no special word for it. Mountains were just mountains, in this case, the twin peaks were Oth and Sin. Rivers were just rivers, in this case, the one dividing Oth and Sin was the Ice Flow. 

Devin's Hearth was built out of the living rock of the mountain Oth by his ancestor Lu-Levin. It was a warren of corridors and rooms, carved from stone, but paneled in wood or carpeted in furs to ward off the perpetual cold. The east facing windows looked out from the cliff-face over the Ice Flow, the west facing windows were almost ground-level with the woods that covered the slope on that side, and the south opened up into a wide, open-air courtyard with a tall wooden gate carved with the emblem of the Levin Bloodline. 

Two vertical lines inside a circle. After his time spent on Earth, Devin rather thought it looked a bit like the number eleven. But the Osmosian language did not have any special symbols for numbers. If numbers were ever written, they were spelled out phonetically. So, the Levin Bloodline crest was not the number eleven -no matter how much it looked like it.

Devin landed his speeder just outside the gate. They would have easily seen his decent from the other side, but he knocked all the same.

It didn't take long for the gate to open and Devin eased the vehicle inside at the slowest possible speed he could manage and still be moving. The courtyard was full of people and activity. That meant that it must be an Off Day, when the unbonded males and females were excused from lessons and left to occupy themselves. That meant that Kevin would probably be out on the slopes with the other boys.

Parking the speeder in the stables next to the animals, Devin pulled the collar of his coat up over his neck and headed back out on foot to find his son. 

Things hadn't really changed all that much since Devin was an adolescent living with the other unbonded males. On days when they were excused from lessons or training, the boys all liked to go out on the slopes and beat the crap out of each other with handfuls of snow. Sure enough, when Devin turned a corner on the path, he came right up to the edge of what was formerly a battlefield. 

The battle, however, was seemingly forgotten as almost all the boys were crowded on the opposite side. Peering between tree branches or climbing up to get a higher vantage point. That, too, hadn't changed since Devin's time as an adolescent. The only boy not seemingly transfixed by the mysterious and alluring creatures beyond the trees was Kevin.

Sitting on an icy rock, off to the side, his back to the trees, and looking board. Of course, he was far to young to understand why the others found the unbonded females so fascinating. 

Devin waved to his son as he approached the group, but signaled that the boy should stay quiet and not draw attention to him. Coming up between two adolescent boys, Devin likewise leaned forward as if to peer between the trees and asked as if in casual interest, "So, what are you all looking at?"

Almost every male there jumped in alarm. As if they'd all be caught doing something taboo. 

"Magister!" Some of them exclaimed in nervous surprise. 

"We were just… uh-"

"You see, there was this thing, and…"

Devin held up a hand for silence, fighting very hard to keep the smile of amusement of his face. He schooled his features into a look of stern disappointment with the group of unbonded males. "I know exactly what you all were doing and you should know better!" He said. "Unbonded males and females shouldn't mingle unless under carful chaperone. Just one careless touch could be enough to bond two of you forever -then where would you be?"

"Oh, for Lu's sake, Devin, its not like any of them were gonna rush down there and accost them!" Yevin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Apparently, he did not find his brother's light-hearted reprimand amusing. "They just wanted to taste the traces of female energy we can pick up from over here. You remember what that's like, don't you? Craving the flavor of a female."

Devin did. Sometimes he wished he didn't. It was a sensation he missed just as much as he missed his mate. The taste of a female. It wasn't enough to feel incomplete and alone all the time, but there was a level of frustration that went along with the loneliness that was entirely base and sexual and drove him half-way to the point of madness. But instead of ceding the point, Devin took that frustration and turned it back on his brother. 

"And you! You're to old for this kind of behavior!" Devin jabbed a gloved finger in his brother's face -making sure to keep just enough space between them so that the two men did not actually touch. "I expect it from these boys. But you should know better, Yevin! Its things like this that are the reason every bond-contract Ehrsha arranges for you is rejected. If you get much older, you might as well move to Sin and join the Clergy, because no bloodline will want their females combining with you. You're a disgrace."

"Oh, I'm the disgrace?" Yevin smirked back, not the least bit humbled by his brother's criticism. "That's amusing coming from the one who ran away from his own bond-contract and ended up mating some weird alien female. Xenophile." 

This wasn't amusing anymore. It was fun to sneak-up on and shock the youngsters. It was even a little entertaining fighting with his brother. But not if the man was going to insult the memory of his mate, and especially not if he was going to insult her memory in front of Kevin! Devin could tolerate being called a 'xenophile', it was technically true, after all. He could even tolerate Leah being called a 'weird alien', from all that he'd told his family of Earthlings, they would seem odd to Osmosians. But Devin would not tolerate having his son hear his mother being insulted. 

"What? The Magister's not a disgrace." Said one boy.

"Of all the Warrior Cast on Osmos V there are only two Plumbers." Another boy reminded them. 

"The Magister being from the Levin brings our Bloodline honor!" Proclaimed a third.

Yevin did not look the least bit pleased at having almost all the unbonded boys taking his brother's side in their little disagreement. 

Devin grabbed Kevin's gloved hand in his own. "We're going inside."

Kevin let his father pull him along, not fully understanding what just happened. At first his father was playing a prank on the older boys and then suddenly he and Yevin were arguing. Kevin understood adult males even less than he understood the older boys. So, instead he focused on his father's hand holding his. That was about all the contact Devin ever gave him, usually. Their gloved hands together. Occasionally a gloved hand on a covered shoulder. Or a pat on the head as Yevin had offered earlier. But not a hug. Never any hugs. 

Devin never held him anymore. Not since Kevin was a very small child. 

He knew it was a thing that people did. Kevin had seen bonded pairs embracing in the courtyard, or in the corridors. Public displays of affection weren't strange between mates, and it looked like it felt nice (bonded pairs certainly did it often enough to imply they enjoyed it). Having another person envelop you in their arms, pull you in close, and press you against their body. Like you were so dear to them they wanted to transcend the barrier of physical bodies and merge to become one warm and contented being. 

Maybe that was what the older boys found so fascinating about the unbonded females. It wasn't their energy or their 'flavor', they were just as starved for contact as Kevin was.

All Kevin really wanted was just someone to hold him.


	2. Ashrah Hearth

Off Days were nice, because Kevin got to play outside.

But most of the time he was kept inside for lessons. Children Kevin's age were taught their letters and subsequently their numbers (which were spelled with letters rather than having their own characters, this made math very frustrating). Devin escorted his son to the male's class every morning after First Meal and Kevin sat quietly -or, at least, as quietly as he could- in a circle of eleven boys the same age. 

He practiced writing and memorized the spelling of vocabulary words. Studied arithmetic and sums. It was a kind of slow, agonizing torture. Kevin much preferred the Off Days. Regardless of whether his father was off world and he had to stay in the unbonded males dormitory, or his father was home and Kevin could play in the courtyard with him, the Off Days were much, much better. 

Kevin often fidgeted impatiently in his place in the circle. Or distracted his classmates by talking. Sometimes, he just got up for no perceivable reason except that he was just sick of sitting and needed to move around for a bit.

And he was equally as often reprimanded for it. 

A male -or any Osmosian for that matter- should comport themselves with composure and restraint. Controlled. 

Self-control was very important for an Osmosian -of any cast. If one couldn't control themselves in their daily lives, then there was no way they might control themselves if they ever were to absorb a surplus of energy. Self-control indicated strength of the mind. Power might rush the body and overthrow the senses. But the mind was the body's master. The mind commands and the body obeys. A lack of self-control indicated the weak minded. 

Kevin had terrible self-control. 

But it wasn't that he was weak-minded, or at least, he didn't think he was weak-minded. The boy just wasn't the 'sit quietly' type. Kevin preferred motion and action. He was a doer, not a thinker. He preferred to be outside, playing in the snow. Or with his father, working on the older male's hover vehicle together. He did not enjoy sitting in a circle with ten other boys writing the same words over and over again until he memorized their spellings. 

Whenever Devin came to collect the boy when the lesson adjourned for Midday Meal, the instructor would take the other male aside and recount to him how disruptive Kevin was. How behind the other boys he was because of these disruptions. How he lacked even basic self-control and how dangerous that was. 

"You don't need to remind me of that. I'm Warrior Cast, I know how dangerous a lack of control can be." Devin growled at the instructor, keeping his voice low so that Kevin couldn't hear. "But Kevin isn't full Osmosian. On his mother's world, children's lessons are broken up by recesses of Off Time where the children can burn off any fidgetiness they might have before returning to their lessons."

Off Days and Off Times during lesson days? That was just mad! "Then perhaps you should have kept him on Earth." The instructor suggested. "Since he clearly is not fitting in here."

Devin's eyes flashed dangerously for a moment, but he suppressed the sudden burst of ire and instead asked, "You're suggesting I take my son away from the only home he's ever known?"

"By your own admission, his alien blood makes him ill-suited to our way of life." The instructor reminded him. "Right now he's still a child and his lack of restraint and his disruptions aren't more than a frustrating nuisance. But what happens when he reaches his adolescents, or even adulthood? Without proper composure and restraint, what happens then?"

That gave Devin something to think about as he grit his teeth in frustration, grabbed his son's hand in his own gloved one, and lead the boy out of the room down to the Hall for the Midday Meal. 

…

While First Meal was taken individually in a person's or family's own suit of the Hearth, the Midday and Evening Meals were communal events. 

Long tables were set up in the Hall, four on each side, dividing the males from the females. Even bonded pairs were expected to adhere to this segregation, lest they set a bad example for the younger or unbonded members of the Hearth. 

At a dais overlooking the Hall sat the Rans'ha and Rans'sha of the Levin Bloodline. Luar Levin and her mate Revin. Devin's parents. Just below them, on the steps of the dais sat Devin's elder brother Xevin and his mate -the next Rans'sha and Rans'ha of the Levin Bloodline once Luar and Revin abdicate or passed. 

As lesser son's of the current Rans couple, Devin and Yevin got to sit at the table closest to the stairs, but never on the stairs and certainly never on the dais. Kevin sat next to his father. 

Communal meals were a noisy affair. 

All members of the Hearth shoved into one room together. Members of different families, different Casts, and different ages all thrown together. Mixing and mingling. The one constant that was maintained was that males and females remained separate. Even surround by the rest of the Hearth as chaperone, a division between the sexes had to be maintained. 

"Lailat, you're so far away!" A newly bonded male shouted to his mate over the din. 

"Our separation is almost to much to bear!" She called back to him. 

It was difficult to tell whether or not they were joking. Newly bonded couples often had trouble leaving each other's sides. They needed time to adjust to having a piece of themselves suddenly housed outside of their body and instead in the body of another person. 

"Sit down, idiot!" An older male placed a gloved hand around the newly bonded one's wrist and pulled him back down into his seat. "You can go back to your nuzzling and cuddling after we eat."

Kevin watched the display and couldn't help but wonder what it was really like to be bonded. To have a person you could hug and who could hug you at almost all times of the day. He was sure his father must have held him before. When he was younger, to small to walk or feed himself yet. Devin must have held Kevin while doing these things for him. But he never held him anymore and Kevin really wished he would. He remembered hearing somewhere that Earthlings needed hugs, and Kevin couldn't help but feel that this was one more thing that made him different from the rest of the Hearth. 

Everyone else seemed to carry on just fine with minimal contact. Gloved hand to gloved hand was usually the most Kevin saw anyone give -unless they were bonded.

Perhaps Devin should have kept him on Earth. 

Perhaps his instructor was right, Kevin didn't really fit in here. 

Ignoring the spectacle the newly bonded pair was putting on, Devin cut up Kevin's meat for him into smaller pieces the boy could eat more easily. 

"You've never met my partner, Magister Ashrah, have you?" He asked his son, already knowing the answer. "He's invited us to share a meal with him at his Hearth in Kanahn. Would you like to come with me?"

"Outside Sinoth?" Kevin asked equal parts shocked and excited. He'd never been out of view of the Hearth before. The idea of going to a completely different territory far from home was an alien concept to him. "Is that okay?"

"You'll have to be on your best behavior." Devin reminded him, his conversation with the boy's instructor still fresh in his mind. Kevin was still just a child, but still, even for his age, he had poor self-control. "Outside of Sinoth, we represent not only ourselves but all of the Levin Bloodline as well. Our behavior reflects on the whole Hearth."

Kevin sobered at the reminder. "I still want to go, Ehrsha."

At the very least, Kevin wanted to get out of Sinoth for a while. 

…

Kanahn was hot.

Hot and dry. 

And very, very dusty. 

Those were Kevin's first impressions of the territory as his father drove their hover vehicle over the reddish brown dunes. Red sand beneath them, blue sky devoid of clouds above them, and sandwiched in between was a sweltering dry heat the likes of which Kevin had never experienced before. 

Devin tried to explain that it wasn't really as terribly hot as Kevin thought it was. It was only because he spent all of his short life in a climate that was so cold -almost always snowy- that Kevin found the change so drastic. The difference in temperature so dramatic. If he spent any amount of time in Kanahn, he would eventually adapt to the heat. When Devlin lived on Earth, he became acclimated to the sweltering humidity of summers in New York (of course, he still always preferred the snowy New England winters). 

Kevin was skeptical he could ever adjust to such heat. He was also skeptical people actually lived in such heat. 

"It'll be cooler at the Hearth." Devin assured him. He reached a hand behind the seats and pulled out a standard issue Plumbers canteen. This, he handed to his son. "Here. Stay hydrated." 

The Ashrah Hearth was built on the edge of a lake where two rivers met. The Nah, a wide, deep ribbon of water that cut down from the mountains. It was so wide, even from the hover car, Kevin couldn't see the other side, and its waters were still. Kevin had never seen water so still. The Ka, however, was a narrow, rocky affair. Full of rapids and white waters. It reminded Kevin of the sea crashing against the cliffs at the head of the Ice Flow. The late where the two rivers met was the Naan.

Nestled between the Nah, the Ka, and the Naan, surrounded on three sides by water, was the Ashrah Hearth. 

Devin brought the hover vehicle lower to approach the main gate from a more polite hight. 

The walls of the Ashrah Hearth were much taller than those of the Levin Hearth in Sinoth. Erected from large bricks of sandstone, covered in plaster, and then decorated in blue tiles. Devin explained that the extra height and the heavy stones helped buffer the city against sandstorms. When Kevin asked why their Hearth didn't have such high walls to protect them from blizzards, his father laughed and reminded him that while heavy snows and high winds might burry the Hearth for weeks -even months- they did not strip buildings, or grate flesh from bone. Sandstorms could. 

They came up to the gate at the same time as a caravan or merchants. All Osmosian -since outworlders weren't permitted beyond the borders of Porttown without special permits- and leading beast-drawn hover wagons. They were of an older model and the anti-grav nodes kicked up a cloud of dust whenever they paused for longer than a minute. As such, the gate was shrouded in a fog of desert soot and Devin's hover vehicle was blanketed in a layer of it by the time they were admitted through the gate. 

And Devin usually kept his ride so clean. 

Aggregor and Aram met them just inside the gate. "Wow, your HV looks like lusah."

Devin made a face. He was very proud of his hover vehicle, but instead of coming back with a snappy comment, he asked, "You use that kind of language in front of your children?"

The other male looked down at his son. Aram was around Kevin's own age. Dressed in a light gauzy tunic over linen short pants. He had the reddish-pink skin of all the Kanahn Dessert people, but his eyes were more almond shaped, sharp and narrow in the corners, big and round in the middle. The eyes of the Niijin Bloodline from the far east seas.

"You won't repeat that word in front of your mother, will you?" Aggregor asked the boy. 

Aram shook his head. 

"Alright then. Aram, you remember my partner Magister Levin, this is his son Kevin. Kevin, Aram. Aram, Kevin. You can do all the proper and polite salutations once we've gotten out of this thrice cursed heat. Now lets show our guests home. Levin, you can park your HV over by the merchant stalls."

The interior of the Hearth was much different from what Kevin was used to. While the Levin Hearth was one gigantic structure, the Ashrah Hearth was instead many separate buildings. Instead of each bond-pair or family having a suit, they instead had a house. All constructed from sandstone bricks and covered on plaster. Painted in star motifs or covered in blue tile. 

Aggregor lead them down an avenue to one such house, only instead of paints or tiles, this one sported a wooden facade with an awning that curved upward, reminiscent of the architecture of the easter seas. Aggregor opened the door -seemingly onto chaos. 

"Lyjah, Sala, if you're not ready to go by the time your father's guests get here…!" An adult female with the ivory-cream skin of the Niijin bloodline shouted for two girls the same age as Kevin and Aram to finished getting ready and come downstairs. She threw a few things into a bag and turned to the door to see her mate standing in the doorway with their guests. "Well, don't leave them standing out in the heat. Come in, come in. Girls! They're here. You two better be ready, or so help me…!"

Kevin was terrified and hid behind his father. 

Aggregor just smiled at his flustered and frustrated mate, the color high in her cheeks. "Levin, since you were so worried about Kevin mingling with unbonded females, Soha volunteered to take the girls to the lake today."

Soha brushed a strand of ebony hair out of her face and offered a polite smile. Clasping both hands behind her back, she said, "Hello, Magister Levin, its good to see you again."

Devin likewise clasped his hand behind his back, the appropriate posture for greeting a member of another Hearth. "Soha, its always an experience."

"I'm sure." She nodded. Then turned to shout up the stairs. "If you two aren't down here by the time I count to hamesh, I am marching up there and dragging you down by your hair! Echad… shtaim… shalosh…"

Two disgruntled and harassed looking females the same age as Kevin came marching down the stairs. Both carrying towels and swim goggles. "We're here, Ehrha. We're here."

They moved towards the door. 

"Wait." Soha placed her hands on her hips. "We have guests. How do we greet unrelated males?"

Sighing, as if it was the most difficult, arduous, and inconvenient thing in the world, both girls turned to face Devin and Kevin (still hiding behind his father's leg). Both girls clasped their hands behind their backs and offered polite nods to Devin and in almost perfect unison said, "We're honored to welcome you to our Hearth, Magister Levin."

"I'm honored to be welcomed." Devin nodded back. "This is my son, Kevin. Kevin, greet our hosts."

With minimal effort Devin pried the boy out from behind him.

Very nervously, Kevin clasped his hands behind his back and nodded back at the girls. "I'm honored to be welcomed."

Both girls giggled at his awkwardness.

Kevin felt very self-conscious. He wasn't usually this close to females.

"Alright. Now lets get going." Soha took charge and started shooing her daughters out the door. Aggregor leaned down to brushed his forehead against hers in the Osmosian equivalent of a 'kiss' on their way out. "C'mon, the males have the house for the day. Lets go."

The door shut behind them and the entryway was suddenly quiet. 

Devin let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding in. Soha always made him a little nervous. "I swear, Ashrah, your mate is terrifying!"

Aram giggled at that. 

Aggregor just smiled. "I know. Isn't she wonderful!"

'Wonderful' was not the word Devin would have used. Intimidating. Off-putting. Abrasive. Commanding. Assertive. Were all accurate adjectives to describe her. But definitely not wonderful. But then, as the male bonded to her, of course Aggregor would think she was wonderful. She carried a piece of his soul inside her and he carried a piece of hers. 

Leah was certainly never as abrasive as Soha. Although, Leah was just as aggressive and assertive. Just, in a gentler way. 

"C'mon, I'll make you a drink. Go make yourselves comfortable." Aggregor herded Devin and Kevin into the main room of the first floor. 

A wide room with tall windows with latticework panes and sheer gauzy drapes to soften the light from the harsh desert sun streaming in. There were reclining couches against one wall, cushions and pillows on the floor, and between them was a small table for serving drinks and snacks. But these were all off to the side and out of the way. The center of the room, the focus around which the whole house turned was the creche. 

The nest where eggs were laid and hatched. It was the focal point of any single family's house or suit -regardless of what Hearth they belonged to. 

A wide, shallow stone basin with a wide lip. When it was not in use -that is, when the bonded pair did not have a clutch incubating- it was usually covered with a protective sheet to keep out dust or other airborne spores and microbes that could harm the soft membranous eggs, or the beings within them. When it was in use, the creche was filled with water -just enough to make sure the eggs were submerged- heated to an appropriate temperature to facilitate incubation, and monitored carefully by both parents. 

At the moment, it was filled with water. Three dark red and slightly transparent eggs bobbing lazily in it. Kevin had never actually see eggs before, only just heard about them. Since his father no longer had a mate, they had no use for the creche that was in their suit back in Sinoth. For as long as Kevin remembered it had always been covered and out of use. Kevin would never have any younger siblings. 

He stared at the eggs in wonder. Noting how thin and fragile the egg membranes looked. He could see the babies inside them, kicking and twitching. It was very surreal. 

"Come away from there." Devin commanded.

Reluctantly, Kevin peeled his eyes away from the completely alien sight and went to sit on a cushion next to his father. "Did I look like that when I was that small?"

Devin was silent a moment before answering. His face contorting with sadness and regret (and maybe a little anger) before he managed to get his featured back under control. It was a gentle smile he wore when he finally answered. "You didn't come from an egg. Your mother's people don't lay eggs. You hatched out of her body."

"Ew! Gross!" Aram exclaimed. It was the first thing they boy had actually said since meeting them at the gate. 

Both Devin and Kevin made identical faces of displeasure at his outburst. 

"Aram, be polite." Aggregor came back out carrying a tray of four glasses and a plate of snacks. Alcohol for himself and Devin, juice for the children. 

"Alright, Ashrah, I'm here and I brought my son." Devin said. "Its several hours before Evening Meal. What'd you have in mind?"


	3. Boys Will Be

Kevin and Aram were not instant friends. 

In addition to the fact that Kevin was socially awkward even at the best of times, he was also in an unfamiliar home, in an unfamiliar Hearth, being forced to socialize with an unfamiliar male. On top of that he also resented the other boy slightly for his 'gross' comment about his mother. True, Kevin had no memories of his mother, but it was the principal of the thing. You did not insult people's parents and you did not insult the passed on. 

Aram felt awkward around the strange half-alien boy from Sinoth. He was quiet and often sullen. He couldn't abide the heat of Kanahn and so preferred to play inside where it was cooler, but also where there was less fun things to do. (How much fun could they actually have with the adult males sitting in the other room.) He was constantly trying to get the other boy to come outside with him, assuring him that he wouldn't notice the heat as much once they were occupied with a game. 

But Kevin was stubborn. 

They were playing upstairs in Aram's room when the boy got a burst of inspiration. He was daydreaming about pushing the Levin boy out the window when he realized that the neighboring house was so close, that Kevin would probably just land on the other roof and climb back in, go crying to Magister Levin, Magister Levin would demand some sort of action from his father, his father would tell his mother, and then Aram's life would end. 

That was when he had an epiphany. If Kevin jumped out himself instead of Aram pushing him, then he'd be rid of the other boy and Kevin just might be the one to get in trouble too!

"Hey, Kevin, I bet you can't jump onto the neighbor's roof." 

The half-alien looked out the window. It was just a little lower than the actual window itself, but on the other side of a narrow ally. It might be a difficult jump, but not an impossible one. "I bet I can."

"No you can't." Aram goaded. 

"Sure I can!" The other boy insisted. "I make jumps like that all the time when I go ice climbing with the unbonded males. And this isn't even slippery!"

Kevin had never been ice climbing before in his life, and it was usually to cold in Sinoth for the ice to be slippery. 

"Prove it." Aram unlatched and opened the window. 

Kevin stood up and climbed onto the sill. "Alright then. I will!"

Bending his knees, the demi-Earthling launched himself out the window, aiming for the neighboring roof. Kevin sailed through the air. His feet hit the roof railing and for a moment Aram thought he was going to fall backwards into the ally. Instead, Kevin tipped forward, tumbling onto the roof proper. He finally came to a full stop after several unintended summersaults and laid flat on his back. 

Aram poked his head out the window. "Kevin, are you still alive?"

"Ugh… Yeah…" The other boy groaned back. "Why don't you try it?"

In all honesty, Aram hadn't expected the half-alien boy to do it. He had been so quiet and sullen thus far, Aram thought he was a sissy. Meek and easily intimidated. But Kevin was more daring than Aram gave him credit for. And like heck was Aram gonna be upstaged by someone snow-white, alien brat, from the north! "I bet I can do it better than you did!"

Aram likewise jumped out the window. 

Soon they were both on the neighbor's roof. 

Kevin climbed to his feet. "Ya know, you're right. Playing outside is way more fun! Wanna see how far we can get by only jumping on roofs?"

That was a game Aram hadn't thought of before. "Let's make it a race!"

And so they went. 

This time getting running stars to put a little momentum behind their jumps. Kevin and Aram made almost half a circuit of the Hearth before one of the roofs they landed on gave in under their weight. The plaster caving in under the stress of their landing. The two males landed in a room full of half-naked, and mostly naked females. 

There was a chorus of loud exclamations and a flurry of fabric as the women rushed to cover their round hips. 

It was the most exposed skin Kevin had ever seen on another person before. 

He stared at the females round hips and flat chests devoid of nipples. Osmosians -that is, normal Osmosians- did not have nipples, there was no need for them. Since their offspring hatched from eggs, their females did not nurse their young. There was no need for breasts and certainly no need for nipples. 

"Aram!?" Exclaimed one of the females. A young adolescent. 

"Zola!" The boy exclaimed back, recognizing one of his older sisters. "Uh, uh-oh… Kevin, I think we landed in the unbonded females dormitory."

They were in so much trouble!

...

Kevin expected his father to be angrier. Or, more accurately, he expected his father to display more anger. But Devin was unsettlingly quiet as he and Aggregor dragged their children away from the Ashra Hearth's Peaceful Enforcement office. The only indication that he was mad was that his whole body was shaking with the effort to control himself. 

Since they were still just children, to young to leave their parents and live independently in the unbonded males dormitories, they were also to young to receive official punishment from the Ashrah PE. After being removed from the unbonded females dormitory, all the Peaceful Enforcement officers could do was send a runner to Aggregor's house and request that the fathers come collect their children. 

This came as quite a shock as both men thought the boys were still inside the house, playing upstairs. 

Aggregore was livid as he and Devin came to pick them up.

"I cannot believe this, Aram!" He fumed as he dragged his son by the wrist back to the house. "Just wait until your Ehrha hears about this!"

"No!" The boy was suddenly horrified. "Why can't you punish me, Ehrsha? I'll do anything you say! I'll pick up my room, I'll be nice to Lyjah and Sala, I'll… I'll clean the privies! Just don't tell Ehrha about this!"

Hearing the other boy's desperate sounding pleading, Kevin looked up at his own father and wondered exactly what kind of punishment Devin might visit upon him. While Kevin always did burden his father with a slue of behavioral problems, none of them had ever quite ventured into the terrible and abhorrent territory of destruction of public property, breaking and entering, or trespassing into forbidden female territory. The worst he ever did was disrupt his lessons, which usually resulted in nothing more than a lecture or a guilt trip. 

Kevin suddenly realized he'd never actually been punished before. 

He didn't know what his father would do. 

The boy looked up at the older male, his mouth set in a grim line of displeasure, his eyes hard, his shoulders shaking from the effort to contain his anger. 

"What… what do you want me to do, Ehrsha?" He ventured. 

Devin grit his teeth and growled, "Just behave yourself until we're back at our own Hearth."

The boy lowered his eyes at that and walked silently beside his father until they arrived back at Aggregor's house. 

Aggregor's mate was already home by the time they arrived. Soha stood in the entryway, arms crossed over her chest, glaring daggers at her mate and offspring as they entered. Kevin agreed with his father's earlier assessment. Aggregor's bond-mate was terrifying. 

"Soha, darling, light of my life-" He began, but was cut off abruptly.

"Go and tend to the creche!" She snapped at him before Aggregor could get out another flowery word. 

He was quick to move and do as he was told, brushing past her into the main room and abandoning Aram to his mother's mercy. Before Soha focused on her child, her eyes briefly flicked up to Devin. No words were exchanged, but Devin quickly herded Kevin into the main room as well. None of them got to hear what Soha said to Aram, or what his punishment was. 

Devin pushed Kevin down onto a cushion out of the way. "Do not move from that spot until I collect you for Evening Meal!"

"Yes, Ehrsha." Kevin nodded. 

"I swear! I just…" Devin was shaking more violently now and his face cracked. Those eyes that seemed so hard and sever outside were suddenly wet and glistening with what look suspiciously like forming tears. Devin put a hand over his eyes before any could actually fall, however. "I just don't know what to do with you sometimes, Kevin! You're so-" different "-difficult!"

Ah. So it looked like this time would be a guilt trip. 

"It was an accident, Ehrsha." The demi-Earthling tried to explain. "Aram and I were just playing a game. We didn't know it was the female dormitory we were on and we didn't expect it to cave in."

Aggregor looked up from where he was adding water to the creche. "In all fairness, they haven't finished repairing all the damage from last seasons storms. There are plenty of buildings with weak spots. Its actually a wonder they didn't break something sooner."

It was also a wonder neither of them were seriously injured. Just a few scrapes and bruises. 

"You're not helping!" Devin snapped at his partner. Then sighed in exasperation. "This was a terrible idea. Kevin's much to young to have left the Hearth."

"I thought he was the same age as my second clutch." Aggregor checked the temperature of the creche before turning to give his partner his full attention. "Lyjah, Sala, and Aram have all left the Hearth. Soha takes them to visit her old Hearth in Shuhon just before the storm season."

"That's all well and good for your children." Devin acknowledged. "But Kevin needs… Kevin is…" 

Kevin was sitting right there and Devin had a strict policy about not acknowledging that his son was any different than any other Osmosian child in front of him. He did not want the boy growing up thinking that his alien heritage somehow made him lesser or inferior to a full-blooded Osmosian. It was difficult enough with him actually being half-alien. Devin didn't need they boy believing that made him inferior. 

Luckily, he was saved from having to finish his sentence by Soha entering the main room. She double checked the water level in the creche, making sure all her eggs were completely submerged and the temperature was ideal for incubation before turning to her mate. She stretched up on the tips of her toes to press her forehead against his so that Aggregor would know she wasn't mad at him. Then she turned to their guests.

"Devin, may I speak to you outside, please."

Kevin followed them with his eyes, sure she was going to tell his father that she didn't want his trouble making, half-alien child playing with her son anymore. 

Devin and Soha stood in the narrow courtyard attached to the house. A small garden in miniature. With short dwarf-trees, rocks covered in dry moss, and a small water feature running through it. The whole garden gave a person the impression that they were a giant standing over a tiny valley. It was a landscaping technique Soha had brought with her from her Hearth in Shuhon. 

"Aram is quite impressed by Kevin." She said. "He made it very clear that he didn't want Kevin to get in trouble. Apparently, he dared your son to jump out a window and things just sort of escalated from there."

"Why would he dare him to jump out a window!?" Devin was more alarmed than relieved. 

Here Soha looked more amused than concerned. "Apparently, when they first met, Aram wasn't to fond of him. I guess pulling daring stunts and breaking into the unbonded females dormitory changed that opinion. Now he thinks Kevin is fearless."

"Reckless and undisciplined is more like it." Devin growled, speaking more to himself, but not bothering to lower his volume. "No normal Osmosian child would have pulled a stunt like this. A normal Osmosian child would have more self-control!"

Perhaps his instructor back in Sinoth was right. Kevin was undisciplined. Had no self-control. Kevin did not fit in with the other males of the Hearth. Kevin would do better on Earth, among his mother's people. With his own kind. Max had asked him when Leah first passed, before Devin even returned to Osmos V with his newborn son. Premature, small and sickly. Max acknowledged that Devin had given a great deal of thought to raising a half-Osmosian child on Earth and asked if he gave as much consideration to the fact that he'd be raising a half-Earthling child on Osmos V. 

At the time, Devin had only been thinking of the Osmosian ability to absorb, and how over absorption could drive a person over the edge of sanity. Earthling society was base and material, and encouraged over-indulgence. Devin thought only of how Kevin might be overtaken by ruhsh if he remained on Earth. Devin had not considered the human threshold for mischief, and excitement. How humans craved adrenaline for recreation. Things that did not fit well with the rigidly structured and strictly disciplined Osmosian society. 

"Aram was right there next to him." Soha reminded the Magister. "So, clearly, another Osmosian child would have pulled that stunt and doesn't have more self-control. Because a normal Osmosian child did pull that stunt and didn't have any more self-control than Kevin did." A pause. "Devin, how long has it been since you visited your mate's home world?"

He looked up, meeting her eyes. Not sure where she was going with this question. "Not since I returned to my Hearth with Kevin."

"So, you might not remember what Earthlings are like as clearly as you think you do." She asserted. "And if Kevin was only newly hatched at the time, he'd have no memories of his mother's people at all."

"What are you getting at?"

She sat down on a rock, motioning for Devin to take the one across from her where the unrelated male would be just out of reach. "From what Aggregor has told me, and from what I've seen just now, you seem to blame a great deal of Kevin's behavioral problems on his alien half." She assessed, trying to use a tone that would not imply any judgment. "But from what I've seen -and, admittedly, I haven't spent very much time with the boy- he doesn't seem all that alien. He's awkward, and desperate to make people like him -as evidenced by taking my son's dare. But I think he's just starved for attention. That's all."

"How do you mean?" Devin looked skeptical. 

"Aggregor tells me that you leave him in the care of the unbonded males dormitory when you and he go out on long-patrol." She began. "Those dormitories are not set up to care for children, they're meant for adolescents who have already reached an age where they want to start growing and moving beyond their parents. A child as young as Kevin requires more attention than the chaperones in charge of the dormitories can give. But you have no mate to leave him with and can't neglect your duties as a Plumber either, so the dormitory is where he goes. On top of that, he see the other children of your Hearth with their own mothers and knows that's something he doesn't have, so he acts out."

"What are you suggesting I do?" Devin asked. He didn't very much like the idea of being told how to raise his child. But it was hard to deny that Soha was making some fairly valid points.

"Take a leave of absence from your Plumbers duties for a while." She suggested. "I'm sure you must have some vacation time saved up by now, and Aggregor can handle the system for a few days without you. Spend some quality time with your son. Give him the attention he needs. And-" an unsure pause "-and, maybe visit Earth. Reacquaint yourself with your mate's people. They cannot be all that different from us, otherwise you could not have pair-bonded with one of them in the first place."

Take Kevin to Earth? 

A decade ago, the idea of his son mingling with the natives of that world filled Devin with dread. It was why he left. But now… now it didn't seem so crazy after all. 

He stood from his rock. "Thank you, Soha. I'll think about what you said."

He did not say he would do it. 

Take Kevin to Earth… Should he?


	4. Decision to Terra

Rubbing his eyes with his hands to stave off the stress headache that was building there, Revin glared down at his son from the dais. Of all of his eleven sons, Devin always had been a little wild and unruly, a regular problem child. It seemed he had passed on the trait to his own son as well. Only in Kevin it was reinforced and magnified by the boy's alien blood. 

"Do you have any idea of the mess your little alien brat has caused?" Xevin snarled from his place on the steps of the dais. As Revin's heir, he was sitting in on more and more of the aged Rans'sha's audiences. "The Ashrah Hearth is almost ready to cut ties with us over this. They don't want to buy goods from a bloodline who's males are uncontrollable savages that break into the female dormitories and accost little girls!"

"That is not what happened." Devin growled, low and dangerous in the back of his throat. He stood at parade rest, staring ahead with the blank military discipline that was drilled into him during the Warrior training of his youth and again at the Plumbers' Academy in his adulthood. There were few things that broke Devin's carefully disciplined control, but comments like that about his son were one of those things. "Neither Kevin nor Aram 'accosted' anyone. It was a simple accident."

"An accident that is turning out to be very costly for us." Xevin snarled back. "Not to mention embarrassing for the whole Levin Bloodline! You should know that when you leave this Hearth, you and your space-spawn represent Sinoth and our family. Don't you teach your whelp to behave? If it were up to me-"

Revin stood from the dais. "Xevin, that's enough. Kevin is a difficult child, but he's still a member of this Hearth and a First Son. Call him anything else besides his name again and I'll have you removed from this chamber."

"But, Ehrsha, I'm your-" Xevin tried to remind the older male that he was his heir and thus had the right to scold Devin as the future patriarch of the Hearth. 

But Revin cut him off before the statement could be finished. "You are my second son. You would not be the one standing here insulting your little brother if Gevin had lived. Stop acting like an uppity little snot and be silent while I handle this." Then, to Devin. "I don't think I need to remind you that none of this would have happened if you'd just bonded the female I chose for you all those years ago. Instead of running off to join the Outworld police and bond an alien female, from an alien world, and an alien bloodline."

Devin returned to his military disciplined parade rest. Staring straight ahead. Not making eye contact when he said, "Yes, Ehrsha."

Revin sighed, as if in defeat. "But what's done is done. And I have an alien First Son in my Hearth. I can smooth things over with the Ashrah Rans'sha and Rans'ha. The fact that you're a Plumber -one of only two chosen from the Warrior Cast- might actually help in this matter. But I can't do anything about Kevin Half-Terran. That is something only you can smooth over, Devin."

With the slightest of nods, Devin asked, "What do you want me to do, Ehrsha?"

"You should have left the thing on Earth." Xevin suggested. "Let it's mother's Hearth care for it."

Devin snarled, melting from his parade rest into an attack stance. "Call my son an 'it' one more time, Xevin! I dare you! Maevin might like the Heir's position just as much as you are."

"Stop it, both of you!" Revin's hand was over his eyes again, massaging out that stress headache. "Xevin, get out."

"You can't dismiss me!"

The older male turned to his son. "You are here to watch and learn so that you'll understand how to handle difficult issues when you are the Rans'sha of this Hearth. But you aren't watching and from the sound of it you aren't learning either. I'm sick of listening to you and I still have things to discuss with Devin. So, get out."

For a moment, it looked as if Xevin was going to protest further. He opened his mouth as if to object, but thought better of it. Closed it again and bowed his head. "Of course, Ehrsha."

Revin waited until the doors to there great hall were firmly shut behind him before continuing. 

"Now, Devin, you asked me what I want you to do about your son, and I'm telling you, no man has any right to tell any other how to raise his children. That being said…" the older male sighed "…Kevin is his own unique challenge for a parent. Your work for the Plumbers takes you away from the Hearth for days or even weeks at a time and since he has no mother to look after him while you're away, he becomes the responsibility or the male dormitories. In addition to that, he disrupts his lessons and holds back the other boys. He lacks the discipline that is needed for any First Son if he intends to be Rans Cast. And now he has created quite an impressive mess in another Hearth for me to clean up."

"I am sorry, Ehrsha." Devin bowed his head.

"Your apology doesn't mean anything if the boy continues to act out." Revin informed him. "Xevin's words are cruelly spoken, but that doesn't make them any less true. Kevin does not fit in here, but he might feel more comfortable on Earth with his mother's people."

"Are you disowning me, Ehrsha?" Devin asked.

"If I was going to disown you, I'd have done it when you came home with your foreigner's child." The older male snapped, irritated at being interrupted. "Now, your work for the Plumbers gives you access to a ship and I'm told its customary for them to offer their Magisters extended periods of Off Time. You will request some Off Time and take Kevin to Earth. If the boy does no better there then here, then you'll come home with a lighter heart knowing his alien blood is not to cause of his problems, he's just a difficult child. If, however, he does better on Earth among his mother's people… well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it."

"Will you disown Kevin?" Asked the younger male, wary. "If he seems to adapt better among Earthlings, will you disown him and send him to live there, away from me?"

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic!" Revin scoffed. "We don't just abandon our First Sons. Arrangements will be made so that he could live a comfortable life among the people he belongs with. But you're getting ahead of yourself, Devin. There's no reason to assume Kevin belongs on Earth any more or less than he belongs here. That's why I'm sending you on this little experiment."

"Forgive my presumption, Ehrsha." Devin bowed his head. "But Xevin is not the first to suggest Kevin belongs on Earth." 

Revin nodded, as if he expected that. "Then maybe you should look past your own assumptions and listen to why they're actually saying. Believe it or not, Devin, but there are people in this Hearth who have raised far more children than you. I've raised eleven sons. You might recall, since you're one of them. I know far more about raising sons than you do."

Once again, Devin bowed his head, seeding his father's point. "Yes, Ehrsha. I'll make preparations immediately." 

…

The gloves were thin and skintight, nothing like the bulky fur-lined winter gloves Kevin usually wore in Sinoth. These were meant more as an impermeable membrane that would protect the skin but still allow the wearer free use of their hands as if they weren't wearing gloves. They were very similar to the Plumbers' issues gloves of his father's uniform, only these were sized for a child. 

Devin slid them onto Kevin's small hands as he explained, "Earth is not going to be like anything you've seen before. Its not just a different Hearth, its a whole other world and the people there aren't like us." 

Kevin wondered if his father was going to correct himself and say that the people weren't like him, but they were like Kevin -since Kevin was half Earthling. But Devin did not.

Instead, he continued. "They aren't as respectful or controlled as we are. Their society views discipline as a form of conformity -which they think is bad for some reason. In addition to that, they don't respect personal space to the same extent we do. A human might pat your head or grab your shoulder without permission or warning. Stick lose to me and I'll intercept them before they can. But the standard human greeting is to clasp hands together, it would be rude not to. That's what the gloves are for. But even with the gloves, I don't want you shaking hands with any females. I'll diffuse any insult that might arise. Don't let any females touch you either. And don't take your gloves off for anything."

Wiggling his fingers, Kevin examined the gloves that felt like a second skin on his hands. "Did you used to wear gloves like these when you lived on Earth?"

"Most of the time, yes." Devin nodded. "I didn't wear them as much after I bonded your mother. A bonded male has fewer things to worry about."

"Will you tell me more about her?" Kevin asked. "Since we'll be going to her world, I mean. What was she like? How did you meet her? Why did you pair-bond with her instead of waiting until you came home and Revin Rans'sha could arrange a bond for you?"

"How did I meet her and why did I bond her…?" Devin repeated. "That, Kevin, is actually a very good cautionary tale. And very applicable since we'll be going to Earth soon."

…

_It was some hours after the mission._

_The team, Max, Wes, Phil, and Devin had just finished dealing with a rather dangerous and difficult xenomorph. Their medical officer, Magister Servantis, wanted to keep them all after and run every test he could think of to make sure no xenomorph larva managed to smuggled itself back to Earth in one of their bodies._

_But Phil opted out. He had a, quote: 'hot date', and was already running late._

_Devin still found the Earthling practice of courting a partner of your own choosing very uncomfortable. But he fully understood the desire to get away from Servantis. Ever since Devin arrive on Earth, the Earth-born Plumbers scientist seemed to have an uncommon fascination with Devin and his Osmosian powers. He didn't like being on the man's examination table for any longer than he had to. But xenomorphs were serious business and so, instead of storming out with a tantrum like Phil, Devin suffered through his exam._

_In hind sight, Phil really should have stayed too._

_Max, Wes, and Devin were just entering the locker rooms of the Mount Rushmore base, ready to change out of their uniforms and head back to their respective homes, when they got the call._

_It was Max's badge that got the alert. Phil's voice coming over the channel strained and in pain. Apparently, a xenomorph larva had stowed away inside his body, so could they please come over and save his sorry ass before an alien monster burst out of his chest! (Phil's exact words were -of course- far less eloquent and contained much to much profanity to be repeated.)_

_His 'Hot Date', not knowing exactly what was happening to him, had rushed Phil to the emergency room._

_They found the exam room Phil was in and pushed past the nurse that was asking the Hot Date questions about his condition. Max and Wes grabbed Phil by both his arms and lifted him off the gurney he was doubled over on._

_"Excuse me! What the hell do you think you're doing with my patient!?" Exclaimed the nurse. She placed herself between them and the door and glared a dark-eyed glare at them. ER nurses did not put up with bullshit and no one was going to take her patient out of this hospital with out her written consent._

_"You can't treat him here." Devin informed her, glaring back. Matching her dark eyed stare with one of his own. There was something very Osmosian about her appearance. With her dark hair and dark eyes. But Devin didn't fully appreciate it, he had little interest in human females. Not to mention that he and the others were rather preoccupied. "We're taking him someplace where they know what's wrong with him and what to do."_

_Behind him, still being held up by Max and Wes, Phil doubled over. Gasping and wretching. "Ugh… Ossy, I don't think I can make it to Servantis…"_

_Wes placed a hand to Phil's shirt and felt something kicking there. One of his lungs must already have been collapsed by the xenomorph, if it burst out completely it would definitely kill him and from the feel of it, that was gonna happen fairly soon. "Devin, you might have to do the thing."_

_"What thing?" Demanded the nurse._

_"Max, don't let the Ossy absorb me!" Phil wailed, then coughed, gasped, wheezed and was silent._

_"Max, he hasn't got much time!" Wes shouted. "The things about to come out!"_

_With a grim nod, Max made a decision. "Devin, do the thing."_

_"What thing!?" The nurse demanded again._

_"Lay him down." Devin ordered as he pulled off one of his gloves._

_Unbuttoning Phil's shirt, Devin pressed his hand over the man's chest. Right over the lungs where the foreign energy was quickly growing. At this stage in its development it wasn't hard to discern the creature's life-force from Phil's. Devin latched onto the creature's energy and pulled. Sucking out its life-force. Absorbing it into himself._

_It was small, the creature being still young. But even so, Devin felt the physical changes that went along with any absorption of life energy. His tongue shifted inside his mouth, mutating into a second maw. The back of his head elongated. His hands became slightly claw-like._

_Someone was screaming. Hysterical and terrified. Female. Devin turned to see that Phil's Hot Date was huddled on the floor in a corner. Hugging her knees and sobbing. But the nurse, while she was most definitely shocked and appalled, was starring at him with a wide-eyes and disbelieving glare. An almost appraising stare. Like she was sizing him up. She was surprised and disbelieving, but not scared. For an otherwise normal Earthling, that was unusual. Then again, working the Emergency Room in a NYC hospital, she probably saw all kinds of crazy things._

_Devin took a deep breath, trying to get his body back under control. The xenomorph hadn't have enough energy to trigger a Rhush, but sometimes the body's mutations could have a mind of their own anyway. Devin ran though his energy control and manipulation exercises until he had enough control of his body to restore it to his natural form. The baseline Osmosian shape, not all that different from the human shape save for the horns that were concealed under his hair._

_When he was once again in his natural form, he turned back to Max. "Its dead. We can take him to Servantis and get it cut out now."_

_"Nobody's going anywhere!" Snarled the nurse. "Not until someone explains to me what the hell is going on!"_

_"Okay, fine." Wes growled, all his patience gone. "Devin here is an alien, that thing making Phil sick was an alien. We police aliens. Now, if you don't mind, we gotta get our friend to our alien police doctor and get the dead alien in him out of him!"_

_"What part of 'secret organization' do you not understand?" Snapped Max._

_"We can deal with that later." Devin cut him off. "We're going."_

_Crossing the space between them, Devin wrapped his hands around the nurse's arms. His bare, un-gloved fingers closing around the exposed skin just under the short sleeve of her scrubs. He gasped at the contact, but picked her up and moved her out of the way all the same. Setting her back down, Devin stared down at her from their height difference of six inches. Her dark eyes glared back at him, so Osmosian-like, and the odd thought struck Devin that he'd never before seen eyes so perfect. His ungloved hand was still touching her bare skin, his thumb caressing her arm._

_"So, you're an alien?" She asked, staring at him. A few seconds ago he looked like something Sigourney Weaver would throw out an air-lock. Now he was smooth-faced and handsome._

_"What's you're name?" He asked._

_"Devin! Stop making eyes are the bossy nurse and help us carry Phil's fat ass!" Wes snapped, breaking the spell._

_Devin pulled away, slipping his glove back over his hand. He should have known better, but in the heat of the moment it had slipped his mind entirely. They always warned in the unbonded males dormitories, not to touch unbonded females. One skin-to-skin contact was all it took to bind your energies forever. One ungloved hand was all that was needed._

_He helped the other two men carry their compatriot out of the room. But every step felt like he was being torn away from a piece of himself, and Devin made a promise that he would see her again. He knew her face, and he knew where she worked. He would find her again._

…

"Do you understand the moral of the story?" Devin asked. 

"I think so." Kevin nodded. "Always make sure your healer examines you really well after fighting a xenomorph."

"No." Devin hung his head and placed both gloved hands on his son's shoulders. "Well, yes, actually, that is also an important lesson. But that's not the point of the story. Listen to me Kevin, on Earth they don't segregate their males from females. They work together, eat together, intermingle socially. Not just mates, but friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. All thrown together in one giant melting pot of casual contacts and misunderstandings. But you can't touch a female and you can't let a female touch you. Do you understand, Kevin?" 

Devin looked his son directly in the eyes to drive his point home. Eyes so much like the boy's mother's, the same shape, the same depth, the same color. A brown so dark they might as well be black. Sometimes, when Devin looked at his son, it was like Leah was looking back at him and it hurt. 

But he pushed the feeling aside for the moment. "You're not like them. You're not completely human. Earthlings can clasp hands, or brush up against each other and its no big deal. But if you touch a female, you could be bonded to her for the rest of your life." 

"I know, Ehrsha." The boy nodded. "They told us in the unbonded males dormitory. 'Don't touch any female but the one that is arranged for you. One touch is enough to bond you forever.'"

"That's right." But they told Devin the exact same thing when he was in the unbonded dormitories and it still didn't help. Some things, it seemed, just couldn't be prevented. 

Some things were just meant to be.


	5. Met in New York

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the chapter where he meets Ben.

It was the seventh week of Ben's summer road trip with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen -the dweeb. This week found them in New York City, New York. 

Or, more accurately, sitting in traffic entering New York City, New York. The actual city itself was still one tunnel away. One tunnel and one eternity of waiting through a sea of exhaust, and choir of horn honking (as if jamming your fist on the horn made anything move faster). 

"Ugh! Are we there yet?" Ben moaned, waving his arms animatedly before dramatically laying his head down on the small slab of linoleum that served as the Rust Bucket's table. 

"Believe it or not, Ben, we're actually making great time!" Max informed them from the driver's seat. 

Both Ben and Gwen exchanged identical skeptical glances, before peering out the window at the cars around them that were most definitely not moving and thus, not making any time at all. For all intents and purposes, the road they were on might as well have been a parking lot. 

"For New York, I mean." Max amended. "We're making great time for New York."

Deciding that a change of subject was in order, Gwen forced a pleasant smile on her face and feigned interest when she asked, "Tell us more about your friend, Grandpa. The one we're supposed to be meeting here."

A small smile of nostalgia crossed Max's face. "Its been a little over ten years since I last saw Devin. We used to work together."

"Oh. So he was also a plumber?" Gwen always found it strange how her grandfather could speak so fondly of his old job before he retired. All plumbers did all day was pull slimy clumps of hair from drains and fix leaking toilets. It sounded disgusting to her. But then, maybe it wasn't the dirty job Grandpa remembered fondly, maybe it was the people he worked with. Good company can make any task seem fun. 

"Hey, how come we've never heard of this guy before?" Ben asked, with about as much tact as he usually displayed -which is to say none at all. 

Gwen kicked him under the table. 

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Grandpa's know a lot of people." She hissed at her cousin. Max was rather old, after all. That meant he had ample time to meet and befriend any number of random people. Although, Gwen would never say as much to his face. "You can't expect him to tell you everything about everyone he's ever met."

"I know that!" Ben snapped back. "I just thought, since we're gonna be meeting this guy, Grandpa might want to give us some kinda introduction. Ya know, so its not awkward."

The car in front of them move forward a couple of feet. Max rolled the Rust Bucket up a couple of feet. "Its been a little over a decade since I last saw Devin." Grandpa explained. "He took it really hard when his wife passed away and moved back home so his folks could help him raise his son."

"Oh. Where's he from?" Gwen asked, imagining sophisticated European cities, or exotic South American villas. 

"Very far away." Was all Grandpa said in answer.

…

As it happened, Devin Levin was disappointingly unremarkable. 

He was a little bit on the tall side of average hight, but still just average. Dark haired and dark eyed. A little muscular, but nothing impressive. A slight frame making him look skinny to spite the lean musculature. The only interesting notes that could be made about his appearance were that he was significantly younger than most of Grandpa Max's other friends. Much closer to Ben's and Gwen's dads' ages rather than their Grandpa's, and he wore gloved to spite the summer heat. 

Also, he had a strange accent when he spoke. 

Gwen couldn't quite place it. It was a little all over the place. He rolled his r's like in Latin, and she was all ready to say he was from Spain, Portugal, or Italy. But then he would put the accent on the wrong syllable of a common word making him sound more Eastern European, German or Polish, maybe. But then he would sometimes pronounce h's like he was hacking up phlegm which made Gwen think Israeli or Persian. 

Basically, Devin Levin's accent was completely alien and Gwen just could not figure out where he was supposed to be from. 

"Wow! Is that really Kevin?" Asked Grandpa Max. "He's gotten so big. How old is he now?"

Devin paused, as if he had to count. That was another thing that was strange, who would have to count or calculate their child's age? Who didn't just know 'I've been raising this small person for X years now'? "By you're measure he's about about 11 by now."

Kevin was equally as strange as his father. 

He, too, wore gloves to spite the fact that it was summer and hot as all get out. 

Also dark haired and dark eyed like his father. But while Devin stood straight and carried himself with an almost military discipline, Kevin seemed less confident and less self-assured. He stuck close to his father, gazing at the city around them as if he'd never seen anything like it before. That was weird because, even if you lived in a small rural town and had never been to a big city before, this was New York and anyone who watches TV should know what it looks like. 

But Gwen, ever amiable and polite, was determined to make friends with him. At least for as long as Grandpa was going to make them socialize with his old co-worker. She extended her hand out to the boy. "Hi. I'm Gwen."

Kevin looked at her extended hand, then up at his father as if he had no idea what he was supposed to do. As if no one had ever offered him a handshake before. Or maybe he was just going through that stupid phase boys go though where he thought girls had cooties. Pff. As if. Everyone knows that cooties were carried and spread by boys. If anyone should be worried about cooties it should be Gwen. (Luckily, traveling with Ben, she had built up a natural immunity to the affliction, and thus had nothing to fear.)

Instead of shaking her hand, the boy clasped his own hands behind his back and nodded to Gwen instead. "I'm honored to be welcomed." He said very formally. 

Next to Gwen, Ben snorted loudly. This kid was such a dork!

"Kevin, uh… goes to an all boys school." Devin tried to explain his son's awkwardness. "One where they put a lot of emphasis on etiquette."

A posh, all boys prep-school, huh. So, somewhere in Europe then. Not many prep-schools in America that could be afforded on a plumber's salary. England, maybe? Weren't most of their schools private schools?

"Well that's gotta suck." Ben offered what little bit of sympathy he was capable of feeling for an awkward and uncomfortable looking stranger. "Why don't you switch him to a public school?"

"Because I don't take advice on how to raise my son from other children." Devin informed him. 

"Jeez, it was just a suggestion." Ben threw his arms up. "No need to be a jerk about it."

"Ben, watch how you speak to your elders!" Grandpa Max scolded. 

But Devin wasn't paying attention to what the Earthling boy had called him (and he'd been called far worse things than 'jerk' back when he lived on Earth). Instead, his attention focused on the watch Ben wore around his wrist. He hadn't noticed it at first. When Max first introduced his grandchildren, the young male had his arms crossed over his chest, the watch folded under one elbow, his own natural energy masking it's unnatural energy. But when Ben threw his arms up, Devin got an unobstructed feel of its aura. 

An uncomfortably potent energy, especially for something so small. Potent, and imposing. Almost like it could over-power another creature's natural energies with its own. Make them something else. Devin had never sensed anything like it before -and it bothered him. 

"What is that?" He asked, pointing to the watch. Pointing to it, but not bringing his gloved hand close enough to touch it. Such a powerful energy reeked of Ruhsh. 

The Earthling boy pulled his hand tight to his chest, clutching his watch almost protectively. "Just a watch."

"Its a long story." Max deflected. Devin raised an eyebrow but did not offer comment, so Max continued. "One I can fill you in on over lunch. Since its been so long since you've been here, is there anything in particular you're in the mood for?"

"Lox and cream cheese!" Devin announced with a tad more excitement than anyone should have when talking about smoked raw salmon and unskimmed dairy. There used to be a deli in Leah's neighborhood before Kevin was born that served the best lox and cream cheese with capers and lemon juice on an onion bagel. Devin always got one whenever Leah would send him out for pickles and baclava at odd hours. 

"Something I can convince the kids to eat." Max groaned. 

…

Devin might have had his special preference for what to eat, but Max also had to make sure that the children under his charge ate as well. And Earthling children could be particular and fussy about their food. In the end, it was the children's pickyness that decided where their party chose to take the Midday Meal. Devin glanced around the hotel restaurant, deciding that perhaps Ashrah's mate was right. He was a bit removed from his own bond-mate's people. 

He felt awkward in his own skin, very similar to how he felt during his first year living on Earth as a Plumber assigned to the sector. Earth society really was strikingly different from his own. 

On Osmos V, a crowded dining hall such as this hotel's restaurant would be for communal dining. That meant, long tables where more people could sit facing each other, anyone could jump into a conversation, and different ages and Classes were free to mingle as they ate. But here, was very different. While the hotel's restaurant was easily as large as the great hall in the Levin Hearth, it did not fit as many people. Tables were round and set far enough apart for strangers to walk between without disturbing other people's meals. Almost everyone's backs was to everyone else. A person couldn't converse with anyone but those at his own table. It was a bit jarring, to be so close to others and yet cut off from them. 

That, and the food took forever to arrive. 

The female child -Gwen- was very well behaved about it and sat patiently while perusing a brochure of all the amenities the hotel offered (apparently, Max was planning to lodge here for the night). The male child, on the other hand… Ben slumped in his chair. Grumbled and groaned about how hungry he was, how boring it was having to wait, why was the hotel so busy, he wanted to do something else, if the food could just hurry up and get here that would be great. 

Such posture and lack of basic manners would not have been tolerated in an Osmosian child. 

But Ben was not an Osmosian child and this was not Osmos V. Since Ben was a native of this world and a male around Kevin's own age, his behavior set the standard for Kevin to match -and that was what really bothered Devin about the other boy. He was teaching Kevin bad habits! (Well, that, and the watch he wore made him nervous and edgy. Such a strange and potent energy did not belong on the hand of a child.)

Soon, Kevin was slouching and whining right along side the other male. An almost perfectly harmonized canon. One half a verse behind the other. A canon in B. 

Max pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Alright!" He finally barked. "Since the waitstaff seems overwhelmed at the moment, you can tour the lobby. But do not leave the lobby! Come back in five minutes. The food should be here by then."

Both boys were out of their chairs and out of the hotel's restaurant before Max had even finished 'by then'. 

"Kevin, stay out of trouble!" Devin shouted after the boys, remembering the last time Kevin was left unsupervised with another male of the same age. The last thing Devin needed was to have Kevin breaking into the women's restroom or another equally forbidden area of the hotel. There was no indication of whether or not either of the boys heard him and Devin sighed in exasperation. "I should follow them. Kevin has a habit of getting into trouble."

"So does Ben." The female snorted as if to imply that no amount of trouble Kevin could get into would ever be as bad as the trouble Ben got into. 

Amazingly, this did nothing to sooth Devin's anxiety. He stood from the table. "I'll chaperone them."

"Sit down." Max insisted. "They won't be away for very long. Not so long as Ben's hungry. And the lobby's just right there, if they make trouble we'll know."

Devin was not convinced. "This kind of 'laxed supervision would never fly on Osmos V."

"And helicopter parenting never achieves anything."

"I'm not a helicopter parent!" Devin was incensed. Then he paused, registering the unfamiliar term. "Wait, what's a helicopter parent? The last time I was on Earth a helicopter was an air vehicle with spinning wings."

Max just smiled and shook his head. It might be over a decade later, but Devin hadn't changed a bit. He really did miss his former partner's naiveté and innocent ignorance of modern pop culture. 

"Hang on a sec!" Gwen blinked at the two adults at the table. "The last time you were on Earth? Does that mean that you're a… Grandpa, is your friend an alien?"

"Well, yes." Devin answered as if he thought this was an already known fact. "My son and I are visiting from our home plant of Osmos V. Max, didn't you tell your children?"

Of course he wouldn't have. It was a stupid question to even ask. If Max never told Frank or Carl what he did as a Plumber, then why would he tell his children's children? 

Gwen made a soft croaking sound. Of course her grandfather's old friend was an alien. What in this crazy summer vacation (so far) didn't have to do with aliens? Well, that certainly explained his weird, all over the place, accent. Now, Gwen's question was, how long would it take Ben -with his infinitely thick skull- to figure it out? 

…

The hotel lobby was a wide area with elegant looking facades and high windows that let in the warm summer light (that was reflected down from the building across the street because this was New York and nothing below the 30th floor gets direct sunlight). Against one wall, stretching the entire length of the wall, was the reception desk where smartly dressed men and women in immaculate blazers checked in guests. Directly perpendicular to the reception desk, were the elevators, next to which there was an emergency stairwell, and then the entrance to the hotel restaurant Ben and Kevin had just vacated. 

But off to the side, on the other wall just opposite reception, was what look suspiciously like a convention hall. It was this that caught Ben's attention. 

Roped off by a velvet rope with a black-suited security man dutifully standing guard. The sign above the door proclaimed for all the world to see that it was a private gaming convention showcasing the newest Sumo Slammers game. Ben knew instantly what he was going to be doing! He had to play that game!

Grabbing Kevin by his gloved hand, Ben pulled the other boy along. Or rather, he would have if Kevin hadn't yanked his hand out of Ben's grasp as if he'd been shocked. 

"What was that for?" Kevin demanded. It wasn't so much that the contact bothered him, but that it was unsolicited and by an unrelated person from another Hearth. It was something the demi-Osmosian wasn't used to. Such casual touching between people unrelated just wasn't done on Osmos V. 

"C'mon, we're going in there." Ben pointed as if this should have been obvious. Didn't they have Sumo Slammers where Kevin was from? It was only the best TV show, video game, card game, and comic book in the world! It was the only thing Ben watched, read, and played. "Its where they're showcasing the new game."

They were stopped by security, of course. "Convention passes?"

Ben paused for just half a second before inspiration struck. "Uh, must have left them inside. We're two of the game pros testing out the new system."

He smiled up at the guard. Kevin wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be doing. Clearly, Ben was trying to get them into an area they were not allowed into. But was this actually something they weren't supposed to do, or just some weird alien right-of-passage thing for males. Try and outsmart their elders, gain access to the inner sanctum, and acquire some sort of trophy as proof of their feat. Ben did say something about a game in there.

"No pass. No access." The guard informed them, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring sternly down at the boys.

Ben looked like he was about to argue further. But that was when the female, Gwen, showed up. Tapping her cousin on the shoulder, she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "What are you doing?"

Kevin shifted his position to place Ben between himself and the unrelated female. He'd never been so close to a female unchaperoned before and didn't know how to behave. Not only that, but her energy felt different from the males of her Hearth for some reason. More potent and appetizing. When she offered her hand to him before, so freely and so boldly, something stirred in Kevin. Something primal and needy. He'd never experienced anything like it before and it confused and frightened him. 

The one thing he was sure of was that in close proximity to Gwen, Kevin was reminded of Yevin's words. 'When you can taste their energy and it heats your blood...' Gwen definitely heated his blood. But for what he wasn't to sure. 

"Nothing." Ben growled, as if having to answer her question was the most inconvenient thing in the world. 

"You better not be doing anything that could get you in trouble."

"I'm not!" The other boy insisted. 

Gwen continued to glare at her cousin for another moment before deciding it was a moot point and giving up. Instead, she threw her arms up in dismay. "Well, whatever. Grandpa and Mr. Levin sent me to tell you that our food arrived and you should come back to the table."

She turned and walked back into the restaurant. 

Ben moved to follow her a couple steps behind. 

Kevin came up beside him. "Is it very important that we get into that room?"

"Super important!" Ben assured him. After all, what was more important than Sumo Slammers? 

Kevin thought for a moment, looking around the lobby at the lighting. He was not very good at tasting energy -not as well as a pure bred Osmosian- but he was fairly certain that whatever it was that powered this building was something he could intake. And if the building went dark, it would distract the guard at the door to the room. At least long enough for himself and Ben to sneak inside. 

Finally, Kevin decided he'd formulated enough of a plan. "After the meal, I'll get you into that room. At least, I think I can."


	6. Hotel Mishap

As far as Ben was concerned, he couldn't finish his food fast enough. He just wanted to hurry up and try to get back to the Sumo Slammers showcase and get his hands on the new game. Whatever Kevin thought he could do, Ben hoped it was good. Even if it wasn't, that was okay. He would just leave the other boy outside as a distraction and sneak in as Ghostfreak. Ben would get exactly what he wants and Kevin would take the fall. 

But Kevin, on the other hand, was taking his dear sweet time with the food that his father ordered for him. Eating in measured, deliberate bites. As if to eat any faster would invite a sever scolding from his father. It didn't Ben long to notice that Devin Levin had a serious stick up his butt about almost everything. 

"Wes is good." Grandpa Max was saying. "He's retired now too. Moved back to the tribe to raise his granddaughter. I'm taking the kids to meet him at some point on this trip. Maybe you and Kevin can join us."

Devin shook his head. "No. My leave is really only long enough for a 'weekend' of sorts. Kevin and I can't go galavanting around the planet with you like old times. How's Phil? Whatever happened to him?"

"Ya know, I'm not really sure." Admitted Grandpa Max. "He and I kinda lost touch after my retirement. I actually think he's still in the business, but I'm not sure." 

Ben suppressed the urge to groan. Gosh, grown-ups could talk. He didn't care about old men and what they were still doing with their time, or their granddaughters that he might or might not meet later in the summer. He wanted to get back out into the lobby and try whatever Kevin's plan was to get in to play the new Sumo Slammers!

"I'm finished." He announced. "May I please be excused?"

Grandpa Max gave him a long hard look, as if to silently reprimand him for being rude. Ben didn't think he was being rude. Grandpa was visiting with his friend and Ben was removing himself from the table before his whining could irritate the older men. He was being considerate. But grown-ups had a funny way of never seeing things the same way children did. 

"Kevin can come too!" Ben added. It was the other boy who had the plan, after all. "We'll entertain each other and stay out of your hair while you two catch up."

Ben didn't wait for his grandfather to glare skeptically at him or begrudgingly give him permission. He grabbed the other boy and pulled him out of the restaurant. Kevin once again pulled his gloved hand out of Ben's naked one. These Earthlings were so free with their contact and proximity, it was taking some getting used to. It was like they weren't even afraid of being accidentally bonded to each other from just a casual touch. 

Back at the table, Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in an affront to stave off a stress headache. Ben was such a handful. "Gwen, can you go with them? Try and keep Ben from being Ben."

The girl nodded and stood from the table, following after the boys.

"I should go too." Devin also stood. "I don't feel comfortable leaving Kevin around an unrelated female unchaperoned."

He also didn't feel comfortable with Kevin being left around the human child's strange watch with its potent and almost overpowering energy. Something with that strong an aura was definitely dangerous. But Kevin -being half alien and thus with an underdeveloped energy sense- might not realize just how strong it was or how dangerous it could be to him. Kevin might absorb a bit of its power by accident and be consumed by Ruhsh. 

Max was about to protest, insisting that Gwen was responsible and that the kids would be fine. But then he remembered what little he actually knew of Osmosian culture. Of how rigid and unwavering they were about the division of the sexes, with males and females only being allowed to mingle if they were related or mated. Or how even what would be a casual touch on Earth could be grievously offensive on Osmos V because a person could try and absorb your energy just as much as they could be giving you a tap on the shoulder. 

Neither Ben nor Gwen knew any of that and could easily upset the half-alien boy with just an innocent high-five. 

"Alright." Max nodded. "I'll settle the bill and then we'll both go after our errant children."

He flagged down a passing server and requested that the meal be charged to his room. Just as the server was taking down the room number, the lights went out. The whole restaurant and lobby beyond were plunged into dimness, the only light being whatever sunlight was still streaming in through the lobby's high windows.

Devin rubbed his eyes with his hand in an attempt to stave off the Osmosian version of a stress headache. Max pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"Kevin!" Muttered the younger man.

"Ben!" Growled the older. 

…

"So, what's the plan?" Ben asked the older boy once they were out of the restaurant and away from their grandfather's and father's respective earshots. 

Kevin paused a moment, once again taking measure of the energy that was coursing through the hotel lobby. Powering the lights, the computers at the reception desk, the door locks, the elevators, the cameras. His ability to taste the nature of an energy without actually touching it wasn't as well developed or as strong as a full Osmosian's was, but he was still fairly sure that the electricity of the building was something he could ingest. 

He just needed access to it. An exposed wire, or an open power outlet. 

There were power outlets all over the lobby. Most of them were already in use. Business men and students on open laptops, or tourists charging their iPads and smart phones. One family set up a portable Blu-Ray player to keep their children entertained while the mother fought with the man at the reception desk over… something. But no open and unused outlets. They were all spoken for. Kevin would have to find an exposed wire -or expose one himself. 

"Go wait by the door." Kevin commanded.

Ben grinned a wide grin. Whatever Kevin was planning, it had to be good. He trotted over to the convention all entrance, not straying close enough for the guard to have to chase him away again, but still within an easy sprint. The security guard eyed Ben suspiciously, but he just whistled innocently, pretending to be checking the time on the Omnitrix -which did not actually tell the time.

Kevin, slipped into an elevator. 

Just below the elevator buttons was a second, smaller panel with the emergency Call and Stop buttons. Using some of his body's own energy, he zapped the lock on the panel with just enough power to force the metal plate open and expose the wires behind it. Picking a wire at random, he tugged on it until it was pulled loose, the copper threads inside exposed and poking out of the end. 

Taking one of his gloves off, Kevin pinched the copper wiring between his thumb and forefinger, Kevin began to absorb the electricity that coursed through them. 

The elevator stopped moving. The lights flickered. Then everything suddenly went dark. Trapped in the elevator, Kevin was plunged into total and complete darkness. 

Idly, he might have wondered about Ben and if this was enough of a distraction to get him into that room he wanted. But Kevin inexplicably found that he didn't actually care if his new friend got what he wanted anymore. Kevin had something better. Kevin had power. Delicious electrical power. He'd never absorbed this much at one time before. Just the tiny, carefully controlled portions he was allowed during lessons on control. Kevin had never been free to gorge himself before and he found that he liked it. 

Energy absorption was invigorating. Exhilarating. 

And he wanted more. 

Much more. 

More than simple electricity could give. 

He didn't know how invigorating it could be and he craved another helping. 

But he wasn't going to get anything trapped in this elevator. 

…

The lights flickered and went out. Oh, there was still light in the lobby of course. It was still midday and the summer sun streamed in from the large front windows. 

But this was also New York. 

New York in the year 2005. Just four short years after the infamous attacks in 2001. When a building in New York that caters to international clientele suddenly and inexplicably loses power for no adequately explainable reason, people are going react with concern. 

The security guard stationed by the convention hall abandoned his post. Bulling out a radio and giving a quick update to his superiors. He moved to cover the main entrance instead, covering any possible exit a hypothetical terrorist might take, and calling for backup. 

Ben took this as his opportunity. Passing through the now vacant doorway unmolested. 

He made a B-line for the new arcade machine. Slipped in a quarter… and quickly realized that the power outrage also rendered the game completely unplayable. Whatever Kevin did, it might have gotten him into the convention hall, but that was about all it achieved. Ben had just wasted his time. Idiot. 

"Ben! What did you do!?"

He wheeled around to find Gwen standing behind him looking horrified and angry. "Nothing."

"Grandpa is gonna be so mad!" She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back out into the lobby and the panic that was quickly causing chaos all around them. "Look what you did! How could you?"

"I didn't do anything!" Insisted the young hero. 

Grandpa Max and Mr. Levin came running out from the restaurant, looking equal parts upset and worried. 

"Ben, what happened?" Grandpa asked.

Mr. Levin looked around. "Where's my son?"

Ben shifted from foot to foot, uneasy. He pointed. "He, uh… I saw him going that way."

"To the elevators? What for?" Grandpa Max blinked in confusion. "Ben, what were you and he doing just now?"

Both adults glared down at him. Gwen crossed her arms over her chest, clearly on the side of the grown-ups. Ben would get no help from her. He was left on his own to plead his case, and Ben already knew that Grandpa didn't understand just how much of a need Sumo Slammers was. "They were showcasing the new Sumo Slammers game in there." He began. "But the guard wouldn't let us in, and Kevin said he could get me in. So he told me to wait by the door and he would distract the guard. Then the lights went out and the guard ran away. So I went in. But the power was out and I couldn't play the game. Then Gwen showed up and dragged me out and now you're all mad at me!"

He said all of this very fast and in one breath. Intaking a large gasp when he was done, Ben looked up at his elders awaiting judgment and punishment. 

"Kevin shorted the power?" Max asked. 

Mr. Levin looked concerned. "He must have found an exposed wire and absorbed the electricity fast enough to cause a short or feedback. He went to the elevators you said?"

Without waiting for Ben to give his confirmation, Devin was already sprinting to the elevators. 

Ben watched wide eyed as Mr. Levin pulled off one of his gloves and placed his hand against the smooth metal and… and turned his hand to metal. As if that wasn't crazy enough, Mr. Levin then changed the shape of his now metal arm, morphing the limb into a crowbar. Ben gapped at him for a few moments before turning back to his grandfather. "Grandpa, is your friend an alien!?"

Devin pried open the doors of the first elevator, only to find it devoid of anything but the center cable. The elevator car having stopped many several floors above him. The second elevator he opened to find a terrified man with his frustrated and irritated looking date. They clamored out of the elevator muttering hurried thank yous as they squeezed past him. The final elevator held Kevin. 

The car was half up, the floor of the elevator car on a level just above Devin's waist. It was mostly dark inside, but in the dim light, Devin could just make out the shape of a boy. A boy with glowing red eyes. As he feared, Kevin had absorbed just a little to much energy from the electric wiring. More energy than a child's body could process without his mind falling into the throws of Ruhsh -the mad lust for more power. 

Devin was a Magister ranked Plumber. But before enlisting in the Academy at Galvan, he was Warrior Cast. That meant he was trained in handling those overtaken by Ruhsh. 

Pulling his gloves tighter over his hands, Devin reached into the elevator car. 

He didn't have to reach very far. Sensing his body's life energy, Kevin met him half way. Lunging at the older male, he wrapped his small child fingers around Devin's wrist. Kevin wasn't reaching out for his father, he was clawing at the energy his body housed. Devin grabbed back, closing both hands around the younger male's shoulders and pulled him out of the elevator. 

In the light of the lobby the red glow of his eyes was not noticeable, he just looked like a highly distraught and fussy child. 

Devin spun the boy around, grabbing him by the back of the neck. He pulled the collar of his shirt down and felt for the knot. The small nerve cluster that would render an Osmosian unconscious. All Osmosians had it, but Kevin was half-Earthling. Devin wasn't actually sure if his son had the same nerve. He never though to check. He never thought he'd need to. 

Instead of wasting time searching for a nerve he wasn't sure was even there, Devin gave up and struck his son on the back of the head instead. That sure as hell rendered him unconscious. The child slumped in his arms and Devin hoisted him over one shoulder like a sack. 

Well, this was a ripe mess. it seemed no matter what he tried with Kevin, where he took him, or who he introduced him to, the boy managed to find some way to get himself into trouble. Now he had a lobby full of confused and frightened humans, and an unconscious child in the throws of Ruhsh.

Carrying his son over one shoulder, Devin marched over to Max to give his former partner some choice words about Kevin's partner in crime. He always knew Earthling children weren't as disciplined as Osmosian children. Earthling parents weren't as strict as Osmosian parents. Earthlings didn't have as great a need to drill prudence and restraint into their children. But Ben's behavior took that lack to far!

Max cut Devin off before he could even begin. "We need to diffuse this mess."

That was true enough. They could deal with their respective troublesome children later. At the moment they had a lobby full of concerned Earthlings, a security guard barring the door and not letting anyone leave, reception desk attendants calling the authorities, and -Max was sure- also a team of hotel security doing a sweep of the building to try and find the source of the power outage. 

"Take him for a sec." Devin passed the unconscious Kevin to Max before reaching a hand into his pocket and pulling out all the various IDs he had on him. "Lets see, what's relevant to this situation…? INS, mm, I think not. CDC, no, to messy."

Max leaned over the man's shoulder. "You have one for Homeland Security?"

"No. But don't you think that'd be a bit overkill for a simple power outrage?"

Max just shook his head. "Then go with FBI."

"I still think that's overkill." Devin remarked, his skepticism didn't stop him from pulled out the Plumbers Issue false ID and corresponding badge. It was standard for Plumbers operatives on all worlds of Level 2 technology and below (as Earth was) to keep their activities hidden from the population at large. To that end, the Plumbers organization furnished their officers with whatever identification and documentation they might need to preform their duties while still keeping the native population ignorant. Devin held up the fake badge and shouted. "FBI, Division 6!"


	7. Tantrum

After some awkward crowd control and some even more awkward explanations Devin was finally able to drag his child out of the hotel. 

Max and his children were also asked to leave. Something Max protested against greatly as he had planned for the family to stay the night there and had already paid for the room (and nice hotels in New York are not cheap!). But the hotel manager was quite firm in his resolution not to allow Ben back in his building -at all. So all three Tennysons had to go and no refunds were given. Max just had to eat the cost of the hotel room while they slept in the Rust Bucket. 

Needless to say, both men were livid with their children.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused!?" Max demanded the moment the Rust Bucket door was shut behind them. 

"It was no big deal." Ben growled, more under his breath than actually answering his grandfather. "The game wouldn't even turn on 'cause the power was out."

"And that's all you really care about, isn't it." Max observed. "Never mind the mess it made that Devin and I had to clean up. But that's all you care about, Ben. What you want. Well, for the next two weeks, no more Sumo Slammers. No video games, no comic books, no trading cards, no-"

"Fair! No fair!"

"You wanna talk about unfair?" Max placed both hands on the linoleum table and leaned over to be on eye-level with his grandson. "What's not fair is the two hundred dollars I'm not getting back thanks to your stunt."

"I didn't even get a chance to take a shower!" Gwen lamented. "In a real shower -all summer! I smell like a boys' locker room."

Devin listened to all of this, but he wasn't really paying attention. He was more focused on his own ill-behaved child. The Rhush was wearing off thankfully. Since Devin rendered him unconscious, the majority of the boy's surplus energy was automatically rerouted to repairing any damage that might have been caused by the blow Devin gave him, that and waking him up. Osmosian biology truly was an inexplicable thing. What little there was left of Kevin's surplus energy, Devin syphoned off into himself. He didn't stop until the boy was returned to his normal base-line energy level. 

Kevin blinked up at his father, noting the stern glare the older male was giving him. "I know you told me not to take my gloves off, but-"

"I don't want to hear it." Devin barked. 

Shutting his mouth, Kevin lowered his eyes. "How much trouble am I in?"

"This is my vacation too!" Ben continued to argue with his grandfather, completely ignoring the two aliens in the room. "You can't always tell me what to do. You're not my dad!"

Max was about to say something in reply. He may not be Ben's father, but he was Ben's father's father and sometimes he couldn't understand how a man he raised managed to produce someone so irresponsible and inconsiderate of others. But he thought better of it. Instead, Max took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He straightened, putting his hands in his pockets. "I think we both need some cool down time. I'm going back to the hotel to see if I can get at least some of my money back. You are going to stay here and think about what you did. Devin, can you watch them for me?"

Devin crossed his arms over his chest. He was answering Max, but it was Kevin he was glaring at when he said, "I'm not letting this lot out of my sight."

"Don't hurry back!" Ben snarled and stomped to the back of the Winnebago where he pulled the flimsy room divider shut -the closest approximation to 'slamming a bedroom door' that one could get in the live-in van. 

Max sighed and left. 

Ben could still be heard on the other side of the screen throwing his tantrum. "Not fair! Not fair! Not fair!"

Gwen's eyebrows came down as she glared at the closed screen. Ben's poor behavior and outbursts were nothing new to her and she wasn't all that bothered by them, anymore. But she was amazed and appalled that he would act out this badly in front of guests. Not just guests, but alien guests. "Glad to see you're taking this so maturely! I'm sure Mr. Levin is really impressed."

"On my world a child that acts out as badly as he does would have been brought to heel long before things reached this point." Devin informed her. 

The screen separating Ben from the rest of them was drawn back with a snap and 10-year-old wielder of the Omnitrix stomped out. 

"Oh, really?" He said, glaring up at Devin with nothing but defiance and contempt. "Then what about him?"

He jabbed an accusatory finger at Kevin. 

"All I did was sneak into a room I wasn't supposed to. He's the one who ripped open a panel, cut the power, and made everyone panic! Why am I the one being blamed for everything? Why hasn't Kevin been 'brought to heel'? Whatever the heck that means!"

The boy had no idea of the steps that were taken on Osmos V to keep those with no control from harming others. For something like the stunt the two of them just pulled, causing a mass scene, creating mass panic, putting people in danger, and falling into the throes of Rhush, Kevin would have to be Cut. 

Surgically severing the assimila nerve, which regulates the Osmosian power of absorption. They could go about their normal life -or as normal a life as would be possible for them. Cutting the assimila nerve also meant cutting off the ability of absorption, that meant they wouldn't be able to sense or taste energy anymore, while the average Osmosian didn't think about it to much, absorption was actually one of their greatest sensory methods. Cut Osmisans were also just a little more 'cut off' from the world around them. Not only that, but the bond to whatever mate they might have was also severed, or if the individual wasn't yet bonded they never could be. For this reason, people whom the proceeder was deemed necessary for were given the option of being Cut or preforming ku-sehk. 

Devin did not want either of those options for his son. 

Luckily, they weren't on Osmos V and no one on the planet had to know about this little incident -so long as Kevin somehow managed to behave for the rest of the trip. 

"I will deal with my son in my own way once we're back on our own world." Devin informed the Earthling child. "Don't assume that just because I'm not yelling at him like Max yelled at you means he's not going to be proportionately reprimanded."

Gwen stood up and placed a hand on her cousin's shoulder before he could say anything else that might make his situation with the adults worse. Not that she particularly cared if every grown-up on Earth was mad at him, Gwen just didn't like being around so much negativity. "What Ben's trying to say is, that its hard to feel like you and Grandpa are being fair when he's being punished, but we don't see Kevin being punished too."

"Stay out of this, Dweeb!" Ben snarled at her, smacking the girl's hand away. He glared up at the Osmosian. "Look, Mr. Grandpa's-former-partner-who-also-happens-to-be-an-alien, its great that Grandpa asked you to watch us and all. But I don't know you. I've never heard about you before. And I don't have to listen to you." 

He reached for the Rust Bucket door. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Devin stepped between the Earthling child and the door.

"Where does it look like?" Ben snarled back, trying to make a grab for the handle from around Devin's back. "Out!"

"You're not going anywhere." Announced the Osmosian, once again blocking the boy's efforts. "Max asked me to watch you, and so all three of you will be staying here where you can be watched."

"Make me!" The child dared.

He lifted his arm, the one with the mysterious alien watch that reeked of Rhush. Ben turned a dial on it and the silhouette of a non-human creature appeared on the watch face. He slammed his hand down on it and the Osmosian gaped in stunned disbelief as the Earthling child in front of him changed shape. Shifting and transforming into an entirely different kind of alien. When Devin first noticed the watch he though its unnaturally potent energy might be able to over-power a creatures own natural energy and make them into something else. BUt he never would have imagined it would preform a full and complete transformation!

"Ghostfreak!"

"Ben! Don't transform inside the Rust Bucket!" The female child scolded him. She, at least, did not seem the least bit surprised by the Earthling boy's sudden and inexplicable transformation into an Ectonurite.

The two Osmosians in the room, however, were shocked and appalled -and maybe just a little concerned on the part of Devin. For that device to not just give the wearer powers but transform their body, totally and completely, it must have a greater power than he originally sensed. Probably the most powerful object in the universe. That was the kind of power an Osmosian did not want to be messing around with. What was Max thinking leaving it in the care of a child? How was Devin going to handle this? He didn't want to fall into the throws of Rhush. 

Devin was momentarily paralyzed by indecision. 

Ben -Ghostfreak- took advantage of the Osmosian's stunned shock and phased through the wall next to him. In less time than it took to say 'Hero Time!' the Ectonurite-Earthling boy was outside and away from Devin's supervision. 

"What- what was that!?" Devin exclaimed.

Gwen just face-palmed. "Ugh, Ben… this is just gonna get you in so much more trouble!" Then to Devin, the female child attempted to explain. "That watch Ben wears is a alien device that can transform him into any of ten different aliens. He's usually much more responsible with it and only uses it to fight evil and protect people. I guess today's just an off-day for him." A pause. "Don't get me wrong, he's always a doofus. But he's not usually this much of a jerk."

"And Max allows this?" Devin just stared at her, disbelieving. 

"Well…" The girl looked a little uncomfortable. "Ya see, the thing is… we can't actually get the watch off him. Its, like, fused to his wrist or something. So its not like we've got much of a say in the matter. The best we can hope for is that he'll learn to be responsible with it."

Oh, yeah. That was going real well. Ben was the pillar of responsibility and restraint.

"I'll go after him." Gwen offered. "When Ben gets like this he seems to have an easier time talking to me than he does to grown-ups."

She reached for the Rust Bucket handle and opened the door as much as she could with Devin still standing in front of it blocking her way. Gwen slipped out.

"Should we go after them, Ehrsha?" Kevin asked. 

The idea of his son pursuing an unrelated female and a boy with a mysterious device that had enough power to throw even a fully trained adult Osmosian into Rhush filled Devin with more dread than the prospect of Max coming back to find his children gone. "No." He shook his head. "No, I'll go after them. You stay here in case Max gets back before I find them."

Devin left. 

And Kevin found himself alone in the Rust Bucket. It was like being left in the male dormitories all over again. Only in the dormitories he had other boys to keep him company. This time he was totally alone. 

…

It wasn't fair! Life wasn't fair and Grandpa Max wasn't fair!

It wasn't fair of Grandpa Max to rob him of his summer vacation, drag him all across the country in his cramped and swath smelling Winnebago. Force him to spend time with his dorky and irritating cousin. Introduce him to all of Grandpa's weird friends and force him to be nice and well behaved. Summer vacation was not supposed to be well behaved! Deny him his Sumo Slammers and other entertainments. 

Summer vacation was supposed to be about sleeping in until noon because you didn't have school. Spending the day in your pajamas -or even just your underwear- because you didn't have to be anywhere. It was about reading comics instead of books and playing video games instead of doing homework. That was how Ben would have chosen to spend his summer. Not traipsing around the world being told what no to do and what he couldn't do.

Grandpa was so unfair!

And now here he was, alone in a crowded and unfamiliar city. Admittedly, that detail was his own fault. 

In his frustration, he kicked the first non-living thing he passed -which was a disused mailbox the denizens of the city seemed to have repurposed as a trashcan (and a bathroom if the smell was anything to go off of). Unfortunately for him, the mailbox-trashcan-toilet was metal and his foot was not. Ben regretted the kick the moment his sneaker connected.

"Ow! Son of a- words my parents think I don't know!" He exclaimed. Snarling his frustration to the universe. 

Ben sat down in the sidewalk to hug his injured foot. 

The shadow of a person fell over him. 

"Are you done being a drama queen?" Gwen asked. "Can we go back to the Rust Bucket now?"

"Nobody asked you to follow me!" The boy snarled up at her. 

"Of course not." Gwen scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "But we have guest. Do you really want Mr. Levin and Kevin thinking that this is what Earthlings are like? Spoiled, and whiny, throwing tantrums when you're clearly the one at fault. You're giving Earth a bad name!"

"Psh. Like I care." From his sitting position, Ben likewise crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. 

"Fine then." Gwen huffed. "Think about Grandpa. As mad as Grandpa is at you now, imagine how much more angry he'll be when he gets back and you're not there. No more Sumo Slammers for two weeks? How about no more Sumo Slammers for two month. Two years. The rest of your life, maybe! If you're not gonna come back with me and behave because its the right thing to do, then come back with me and behave because you're a self-centered and self-serving jerk."

"I am not a jerk!"

"Well you're acting like one." She tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. "Now, are you gonna swallow your pride, pretend you're the bigger man, and come back with me? If we go now, we might get back before Grandpa does, and he won't be as mad."

"He doesn't have to know…?" Ben asked, hesitantly. 

"Oh, no. Mr. Levin will definitely tell Grandpa you stormed off like a whiney baby." Gwen broke it to him. Devin Levin was Grandpa Max's friend, not their friend and Ben had done nothing to endear himself to the man or earn his sympathy. There was no way in heck Ben was gonna be able to convince the Osmosian visitor not to tell Grandpa about his prima donna storm-out. "But if you're back in the Rust Bucket and behaving before Grandpa gets back , he might choose not to add to your punishment." 

"Earthlings are notoriously bad a disciplining their children."

Both Ben and Gwen looked up to see Mr. Levin had appeared and was standing over them. One hand on his hip, looking exasperated, but relieved to have found them both together and in relatively the same condition they left in. 

"I would not be surprised if he repealed your earlier punishment and didn't make you suffer any consequences at all." He pulled his glove tighter over his hand before offering it to the boy to help him to his feet. "Now, if your tantrum is over, lets get back."

…

Max arrived back at the Rust Bucket to find it eerily quiet and alarmingly empty. Where there should have been four occupants awaiting his return, there was only one. Kevin. 

"Where is everyone?" He asked the Osmosian boy.

Kevin looked up. "Ben ran out and the female went after him. Ehrsha left to bring them back -but they're not back yet."

Max pinched the bridge of his nose. Why were his children such a hand full? Frank and Carl never gave him as much trouble.


	8. Devin 11

“I can't believe Ben!” 

That wasn't true. Max could very easily believe that his youngest grandson would very quickly decide that he didn't respect the authority of a new and unfamiliar adult in his grandfather's absence. He could also easily believe that Ben would choose to express himself by storming out of the Rust Bucket and away from the safety of adult supervision. Max was really just expressing his frustration with the whole situation. 

Children gone. Devin gone. Himself unexpectedly left responsible for a half-alien boy he'd only just met that day. 

“Ehrsha often leaves me in the care of other males of our Hearth.” Kevin informed him. 

He probably assumed this was helping, but really, all it succeeded in doing was frustrating Max further. Not with the current situation, but with Devin. It wasn't exactly pertinent to the current crisis. But after Max diffused this situation with Ben, he was going to give Devin a serious talk about general neglect. For a guy who claimed to live his life for his child, he made a lot of stupid parenting decisions -at least, by human standards. 

For the moment, Max asked, “How long ago did they leave? Did you happen to see what direction they went?”

“I don't know.” The boy replied. “I don't know how you measure time here. I wasn't paying attention. Ehrsha told me to stay inside, so I stayed.” 

Why couldn't Ben be that obedient and cooperative?

Max sighed. The smart thing to do would be to stay put and wait for Devin to drag his wayward children back to the Rust Bucket. That was the smart thing in any normal crisis of this variety. However, this wasn't exactly the average 'child run away and family friend went looking for them'. For one, the child in question was in possession of an alien device of a level of technology so far above human understanding that they might as well just go ahead and call it magic. The family friend in question was a strange visitor from and alien planet whom had spent the past ten years away from Earth and was unfamiliar with contemporary Earthlings and children especially. 

So, Max didn't know how long they've been gone. He didn't know which direction they went. One of them had alien powers and the other had an alien device and wasn't shy about using it. This situation could deteriorate quickly if Max didn't catch up to it and diffuse it. 

“Alright, kiddo, sit down and belt in.” Max told the boy. “We're going after them.”

Kevin did as he was told. “But how are we gonna find them?”

How indeed. “Don't worry. I have a feeling that finding them will be the easy part.”

…

"Now, if your tantrum is over, lets get back."

Ben looked at the gloved hand being offered to him. “So... you're not gonna tell Grandpa Max I ran out on you?”

The Osmosian shook his head. “Oh, no. I will definitely be informing the patriarch of your Hearth of your behavior. You should know that every time you step out of your family's Hearth, your behavior reflects on your entire Bloodline. Max should know how the Tennyson Bloodline is being represented.”

Of course, Ben didn't understand a word of that beyond the part about still telling Grandpa Max about his tantrum and subsequent storming out. Mr. Levin might seem nice now, all of a sudden, but that didn't change the fact that Ben was still gonna be in even more trouble with his grandfather. More frustrated with the alien than he was before, Ben smacked the offered hand away, climbing to his feet himself. “Then what good are you?”

He turned to leave, trying to run away again. 

But Devin grabbed his arm.

The arm the Omnitrix was on. 

And something very bad happened. 

Ben tried to yank his arm out of the older man's grip. As he tugged, the friction pulled Devin's glove off as the boy's skin slid out of his hand. By the time Devin's own hand hit Ben's wrist, there was just enough of his palm exposed to touch the Omnitrix. 

Devin gasped at the pulse of power. His body reacting without the permission of his mind. He felt the power flow into him, a deep rumble of heat that rolled under his skin, but his arm and across his chest. When it hit his heart, the power spread through his whole body -triggering an all new mutation. 

All Osmosian shape-shifted and mutated a little bit when they absorbed other species. But this was entirely new, and different, and terrible. 

Flames erupted up his left arm, but the skin under didn't burn, it had shifted into a molten membrane similar to that of a Pyronite. His right swelled, turning red as it morphed into something resembling a Tetramand's. His ribs hurt and Devin found himself doubling over as two more limbs burst from his sides, furry and clawed like a Vulpimancer's paws. His head pounded with pressure as his eyes changed number and shape, shifting position on his face and displacing his sinuses. The aquatic antenna of a Piscciss Volann sprouted from his forehead. His back ached as his shoulder blades elongated into the wings of a Lepidopterran, while his spine extended into the tail of a Kineceleran. 

All around them, passers by on the side walk screamed, or gasped, or turned and ran in the opposite direction they'd come (or any combination there of).

Ben's eyes widened in shocked terror. The Omnitrix transformed him all the time. But only ever one at a time. The young changeling had never before seen a conglomeration of more than one alien -never mind all ten aliens! He backed away from the Osmosian, not sure what he should do. Somehow, he was sure Grandpa Max would be mad at him for this too. 

Gwen appeared at his side. “What did you do!?”

“I didn't do anything!” Ben snapped back at her. 

Devin, already doubled over from the strain of his transformation, collapsed onto his hands, and hands, and knees. Not yet able to control the new limbs of the body he suddenly found himself in. The power coursing through him was making it hard for him to think. He couldn't concentrate. He couldn't control the power crashing in on his head, pounding in his ears, and swelling in his veins. So much power... So much that it made him hungry. His hands -all four of them- balled into firsts. The Pyronite arm melting finger lines into the concrete sidewalk. There was so much energy coursing through his body already, but all he wanted was more... 

Devin knew what this was. 

“Ruhsh...” He growled, like a gravely rumble in the back of his throat. 

“What?” Gwen asked, not recognizing the alien word and thinking that he was asking for help. She had never seen a person react to the Omnitrix like this before either. She had no idea what was going on or what she should do. “Is there something we can do to help.”

She elbowed Ben in the side, prompting him to join in on the trying to help.

“M-more...” The Osmosian growled, pushing his now hulkingly huge body back to his feet. 

“Huh?” Gwen blinked at him, still not understanding what he was asking for. 

“Want more!” Devin made a grab, not for Ben and his watch, but for Gwen. 

Ben didn't think, he just reacted on impulse, pushing his cousin to the side and out of the way of the unbalanced alien that was lunging for her. He didn't pause to wonder why the Osmosian was going after his boring, dorky, uninteresting and utterly un-special cousin instead of him or his Omnitrix. He just slammed his hand down on the face of his watch to protect her. 

“What the hey!?” Gwen exclaimed as she found herself shoved roughly onto the pavement by a suddenly and miraculously assertive and protective Ben -now in the form of Fourarms. 

“I don't know what just happened here, or what you think you're doing!” Growled the muscular, multi-limbed alien. “But no one shoved the Dweeb but me!”

“Give me more!” And the mutated Osmosian made another grab for Gwen, completely ignoring the territorial and protective Tetramand trying to stand between him and his chosen prey. 

Gwen screamed and scrambled out of the way as quickly as she could, scrapping the knees of her white caprees in her hast to get her feet back under her. 

Ben grabbed onto Devin's Mechamorph tail and tugged -hard. Yanking the larger alien just short of grabbing his cousin with one of his mismatched hands. 

“What should I do?” Gwen asked. Normally, in these situations, she just hung back and made snarky comments from the sidelines then lectured Ben about how nothing would have happened in the first place if he'd just done -or not done- X, Y, or Z. But in this case, she couldn't stay on the sidelines. In this case, she had somehow become the target of the mad monster her cousin was fighting and even if she did manage to get out of the direct line of violence, Devin would keep going after her and dragging her back in. 

“Go get Grandpa Max!” Fourarms shouted at her.

Devin snarled a wordless, guttural snarl. The kind of sound one only ever expects to hear out of the throat of a Tokyo-destroying Godzilla-monster, complete with drool spraying from his jowls. He thrashed his tail, trying to shake the Tetramand off. Lifting the limb up -and Ben with it- before slamming it back down into the pavement. 

Ben groaned, but did not let go of the monster. “Now! Go find Grandpa, now!”

Gwen didn't need to be told a third time. She turned and ran. 

…

As Max predicted, finding Ben was the easy part. All the retired Plumber had to do was follow the sound of people screaming and drive in the direction everyone was running away from. 

Kevin looked out the window at all the people running and bumping into one another. “Earth is a very exciting place.”

For what the rest of the universe considered to be a 'rural' and 'backwater' planet with only Level 2 technology, Max decided that was fairy accurate. Earth did get a lot of excitement for a place that was supposedly 'removed' from universal conflict. But he wasn't exactly in a mood to comment on that at the moment. He was too focussed on not hitting a pedestrian while also keeping an eye out for whatever alien Ben was in the form of now. 

That was how he found Gwen. Or, more accurately, how he almost hit her with the Rust Bucket. 

The girl came running right up to the beaten up old Winnebago and he had to slam on the breaks to avoid squishing her. But Gwen didn't seem to notice the almost-accident (or if she did, she didn't let it slow her down). She wrenched the RV door open and hopped inside. 

Not even waiting for her grandfather to demand what was going on or what Ben had gotten himself into his time, she launched into an explanation. “Mr. Levin's gone crazy! He was trying to get Ben to come back, and he accidentally touched the Omnitrix, and then just transformed into this... this big thing!”

Max suppressed the urge to sigh. Freaking Osmosians and their freaking mutations. Wasn't stuff like this the reason Devin wore gloves!? To his granddaughter, he said, “Sit down and buckle in. Now, where are Ben and Devin?”

Gwen did as she was told, finding space to sit right behind Kevin and belting herself in. The Osmosian boy shifted in his own seat a little, suddenly uncomfortable to have a female so close to him again. Her aura was unlike any of the other natives of this world he'd seen thus far, and even the males of her Hearth. A potent and enticing energy that made Kevin's mouth water, and his blood pump in his ears. He wanted to taste her. But now was not the time.

“They're down this street about two more blocks.” She told her grandfather. “Ben's in the form of Fourarms, and Mr. Levin looks like a bit of all ten of them.”

“All ten?” Max echoed. That was new. He'd ever only seen Devin absorb one alien at a time and mutate into having traits from only one alien at a time. The retired Plumber couldn't even imagine all ten of Ben's Omnitrix aliens mingling together on one body. It was unheard of. It just wasn't done. 

Max kept driving, following the direction Gwen had said, and sure enough, there was Fourarms fighting... fighting a... a thing. Max had never seen anything like it before -and he had been present for several of Devin's absorptions and mutations in the past. But this was completely different. Instead of just one thing, the Osmosian was ten things plus himself -a 'Devin 11' if you will. 

The Rust Bucket came to a screeching halt just short of the fight.

Fourarms looked up at the Winnebago. “Finally!”

Max climbed out of the RV, staring at Devin's new mutant form.

“Grandpa, what do I do?” Ben asked, as he grappled with the jigsaw puzzle of a creature. 

The question of 'How the hell did he absorb all ten aliens in the Omnitrix!?' was on the edge of Max's lips. But that wouldn't be helpful right now. Ben could explain what the hell he did later. First Max had to diffuse this situation. If Devin was attacking Ben, then that meant he absorbed more than just a little alien DNA. The Osmosian must have gotten a surplus of energy along with it. Too much energy for Devin to control. He must have fallen into that 'energy madness' his species was vulnerable to. 

“We need to syphon off his excess energy!” Max shouted at his grandson. 

“How!?” Ben called back. 

An excellent question indeed. 

Max had worked with Devin before, but he'd never had to deal with this particular flaw in the Osmosian power-set. He looked back at the Rust Bucket and saw Kevin sitting there in the passenger seat. Max might not know what to do, but Kevin was Osmosian like his father. They must have taught him what to do when one of his own kinds absorbs to much and flies off the rails crazy. That was the whole reason Devin took his son back to Osmos V to be raised in the first place. So that he'd know how to be Osmosian. 

“Kevin, come out here!” Max called. 

The boy looked startled and confused for a moment. What did Max want with him? He was just a kid. What could he do?

Maybe he hesitated too long, because Gwen unbuckled her own seatbelt and stood. She grabbed Kevin by the hand and dragged him out of the passenger seat. He stared down at his gloved hand in hers. Even through the barrier of the polarized fabric that no energy could pass through, he could feel that her hand was warm, her grip strong to spite her hand being smaller than his. The Osmosian found himself wondering what it might be like to touch her with his glove on. A skin to skin contact. What would she feel like?

Gwen pulled Kevin out of the Rust Bucket and dragged the older boy over to her grandfather. “Grandpa needs you!”

Max knelt down to be on a closer eye-level with the boy. “I need you to tell me how to control someone who's absorbed too much energy and gone crazy.”

His dark eyes went wide with alarm. “A Ruhsh!” He looked back at his father, mutated into a mish-mash of multiple aliens, many of which Kevin hadn't even seen pictures of before and knew nothing about. “You don't control someone in the throws of Ruhsh. You call someone from the Warrior Cast to deal with them -or else you get out of the way.”

“Well, that's not helpful.” Gwen huffed next to Kevin, crossing her arms over her chest with a 'humph'.

Sensing more energy, Devin turned his attention away from Ben and saw that Gwen had returned. 

To his Ruhsh effected vision, she didn't appear as a human child. To the Osmosian's eyes she looked like a figure of light. Glowing in shades of indigo and star sapphire. A being a pure energy -Anodite energy. Max's granddaughter was an Anodite, but like Max's mate. 

Ignoring the Tetramand he was grappling with, Devin shoved Ben away from himself and made a dash for the girl. Moving with a Kinecelearn speed that none of the others could keep up with. One moment he was fighting Ben. The next thing anyone knew, she had shoved Max to the side and snatched the girl up in one oversized Vulpimancer paw. 

Gwen screamed.

Max gasped in horror. 

“Oh no you don't!” Ben snarled. The Tetramand leapt up onto the mutated Osmosian's back... ...just as the Omnitrix timed out. When Ben came back down from his jump, he landed right between Devin's smelly Lepidopterran wings, now in his natural form of a small and ineffective human boy. “Oh. Uh, oops.”


End file.
